


Fated: Season 1

by ddixons_angel



Series: Fated [1]
Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/M, Implied Sexual Content, The Walking Dead spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:22:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 23,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25243078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ddixons_angel/pseuds/ddixons_angel
Summary: Gloria Rhee narrowly escapes Atlanta with her brother as the outbreak reaches the city. Luckily, they find a camp outside the city and together, they fend through encounters with the living and undead.Starts a little before Season 1 and then follows the main storyline of The Walking Dead
Relationships: Daryl Dixon/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Fated [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1828717
Comments: 12
Kudos: 62





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Please note: This IS a Character Insert Series Rewrite so this WILL contain spoilers for the show. ALL Major Character deaths will not be changed! 
> 
> I already have a large portion of this series posted on Tumblr and decided to post it here as well! I'll be posting a chapter every day until I'm caught up with what I have on Tumblr! Any comments are always appreciated!

A hot summer day in the middle of August, screams of terror and pain are heard all over the bustling streets of Atlanta, Georgia. People running for their lives, some trying to get into cars, some abandoning their already crashed cars; it’s a complete disaster. Police and ambulance sirens echo throughout the city, the service workers doing their best to put an end to the violence and rescue as many people as possible. Injured civilians are rushed into the hospital, cries of pain and fear sound through the halls of the emergency ward.

“Seriously, what the hell is going on…” Gloria Rhee exclaims to herself as she rushes down the hall to the emergency ward where she was called to assist.

“Gloria! Come here, I need your help.” an older woman beckons her over as she is wheeling a patient on a gurney to a room.

Gloria rushes over immediately and assists in pushing the gurney, she glances at the patient and isn’t able to ignore the patient’s injury; it looks as if they’ve been bitten.

“Doc, I don’t think they’re going to make it.” Gloria tries to say calmly, “the wound is still bleeding and by the looks of it, they’ve already lost a lot of blood.”

“That doesn’t mean we give up.” the woman gives Gloria a stern look and they push the gurney into the designated room.

Once the patient is in the room, the older woman gets to work with Gloria assisting her. They attempt to stop the bleeding and stabilize the patient, but soon realize that their attempts are futile; Gloria was right, they had lost too much blood. The older woman looks at Gloria with sad eyes and announce the time of death.

“Come on, it’s a complete mess out there, they need our help.” The woman says as she puts her hand on Gloria’s arm and starts to lead her out of the room.

Gloria nods and takes one last look at the patient and stops, “Wait, doc, look!” 

The older woman looks back at the patient and is shocked to see that the patient had woken up, but they seem different. Before Gloria could say anything about how empty the patient’s eyes look, the older woman had made her way to the patient already to check on them. To their horror, the patient is unresponsive to the doctor’s questions and instead snarls as they grab the doctor and sink their teeth into her, causing an agonizing scream. 

“Oh my god…” Gloria watches, horrified and unsure of what to do as the patient devours her now dead superior. 

Fear and panic take over her as she runs out of the room, screaming for help only to stop in her tracks as she takes in the scene in front of her. Patients, doctors, nurses, are all screaming as they are being eaten alive. Gloria looks around her and takes off to the nearest emergency exit. Once outside the hospital, she looks around only to see a similar scene out in the streets. 

“Glenn…” Gloria breathes the name of her brother and runs off to find him.

Dashing down the streets and jumping over cars, she reaches her first destination, Tony’s Pizzeria. Gloria opens the door to the restaurant to find that it’s completely trashed, the owner of the place on the ground and bleeding out. 

“Tony!” Gloria kneels down beside him and sees another bite on the man’s collar, “you have a first aid kit in here somewhere, right? We gotta get you patched up, come on.”

She attempts to help him up but he stops her, putting his arm on her shoulder, “No, you can’t, I’m already done, they got me.” 

“What are you talking about?! You’re bleeding out, we gotta-”

“What you gotta do is find Glenn and get the hell outta here! Watch out for those undead freaks, once you’re bit..” he looks at his own injury and chuckles bitterly, “you’re a goner.” 

Tears threaten to fall from Gloria’s eyes as she registers his words, “where is Glenn?”

Tony coughs and breathes heavily, “T-the last order I-I told him to make…was to that warehouse by N-Nelson’s. You know where that is?”

Gloria nods, “I do…I do, thank you…”

All the life in Tony’s eyes leave him as he breathes his last breath, smiling softly at Gloria. She sniffles and stops her sobs, getting up, she rushes into the kitchen to find something, anything, to arm herself with. She finds a large knife and comes back out to the front of the restaurant. She freezes when she sees Tony’s dead body starting to move and she hears a familiar snarl. 

“That’s what he meant by undead freaks…” Gloria whispers the realization and watches the undead corpse slowly getting up and finally notices her.

Knife in hand, Gloria prepares to run by the corpse without getting touched. She dashes between tables, only to trip on an already fallen chair and the corpse reaches for her. It’s jaws snapping at her while it’s hands grab hold of her shoulders. Gloria struggles, stabbing the corpse in the chest and shoulders but to no avail, it just kept trying to bite her. She uses all of her strength to hold him above her.

“Come on, think….” Gloria glances at where she had stabbed. 

It’s lungs are punctured and multiple stabs in the heart; Gloria looks up at Tony’s dead face and makes one last educated guess, the brain. She lets out a battle cry and pushes the corpse off her, then gets up and plunges the blade into the head of the corpse. It stops moving instantly. 

Gloria collapses back and reevaluates what just happened, “Holy shit…”

She composes herself again and yanks the knife out of the head of Tony and steps outside the restaurant, back onto the streets. Chaos is everywhere as everywhere she looks, there is blood and gore. 

“Fuck… I gotta find Glenn…”

— 

Gloria makes it to the warehouse that Tony had told her to go to find Glenn, but she isn’t able to get close to the warehouse as there are undead corpses roaming everywhere. The last thing she wants is to get caught in a crowd of those things. She thinks for a moment and decides to take a chance and head back home, thinking that Glenn might be there waiting for her already. Taking one last look around, Gloria heads back to her and Glenn’s apartment building, doing her best to avoid the undead on the way, only killing them if absolutely necessary. Thankfully, the lobby of her apartment seems clear of the undead, although there are smears of blood on the wall. 

“Glenn?” Gloria calls out when she opens the door to her apartment.

She sighs when she finds that the apartment is empty. Their apartment is still relatively clean, no sign of any rummaging through their things which tells Gloria that Glenn hadn’t come back to pack anything either. Gloria quickly goes to her room, grabbing her large duffle bag and any essentials. Before exiting her room, she catches her reflection in the mirror. Her nurse scrubs splattered with blood. Gloria decides to change out of her work uniform, just to prevent Glenn from running the opposite way when he sees her in bloody clothes. She packs her bag with clothes, water bottles, and any food she can find in their fridge and cupboards. With a full bag and the sheathed kitchen knife set her father gave her, she heads out of her apartment. 

Gloria pushes the door to her apartment building open, rushing out and not noticing that there are undead outside roaming and once they see her, one of them grabs her arm, pulling her towards them. She lets out a yelp and quickly stabs the one who grabbed her in the head, freeing her of it’s grasp and she runs away. She reaches a quieter street with less undead corpses, most of them distracted as they feast on other dead bodies. 

“Glenn!” Gloria yells out in desperation for her brother.

She looks around and soon realizes that she should not have yelled. The undead corpses which were originally busy feasting on their kill now have their attention on her, fresh meat. They all start to make their way towards her, snarling and groaning, attracting more undead to the area with noise. 

“Shit..” Gloria mutters under her breath as she tries to find a way out of this mess she brought upon herself.

Looking behind her, she finds a somewhat clear pathway and retreats through there, putting down and pushing away any undead that come close to her. Her path gets blocked off by cars and many more undead corpses, her only exit is to climb the cars and jump to the other side. Before she’s even able to climb on the hood of the car, hands grab at her legs and pull her back. Gloria struggles to break free, kicking at anything that comes close to her, attempting to stab at the ones holding onto her. She plunges her knife into the skull of the main undead corpse holding onto her, she frees herself but is unable to take her knife out of the skull. Giving up on the knife, she tumbles to the other side of the car where more undead are waiting for her, she dashes at any opening she can find through the hordes and finds herself backed into an alleyway, the horde blocking all exit paths for her. 

“Gloria! Gloria! Up here!”

She knows that voice. Looking up to find where the voice is coming from, Gloria sees her brother looking down at her from the roof of a building. Relief washes over her as she finds that he’s alive.

“Climb the ladder! Now! Hurry!” Glenn instructs her, his eyes glancing back and forth from her to the horde.

Without any hesitation, Gloria grabs onto the ladder mounted at the side of the building. She quickly climbs up, escaping the grabbing hands of the hungry undead in the alley. Glenn reaches out to her as she closes their distance and helps her over the ledge of the building. 

“You okay?” Glenn asks, his hand patting his sister’s back.

Gloria nods, out of breath from the near-death experience, then pulls him in for a tight hug, “I’m so glad you’re okay.” 

“Me too. Come on, let’s get out of here.” Glenn takes the lead.

“Wait,” Gloria stops him, she begins to dig into her bag and pulls out two knives that she packed from their apartment, giving one to Glenn, “Here, and don’t make any noise, they’re attracted to sound.” 

Glenn takes the kitchen blade from her and chuckles, “you brought the knife set dad gave you?” 

“Yeah, well, they’re finally coming in useful.” Gloria zips up her bag and puts it back on her back and starts walking with Glenn.

“Not really, those things are already dead, what good will a kitchen knife do?” Glenn exclaims, his voice full of worry, “how are we gonna stop them?”

Gloria points to her right temple, “It has to be the brain, something probably respawns there when they die so destroying that must kill them permanently.”

“Wow…they teach you that in Health Sciences too?” Glenn laughs.

“No, you dumbass. Let’s just say, I found out by killing your boss.” Gloria said as she looks down to the streets on the other side of the building, “this part seems clear. Hang on…where the hell are we even trying to go?” 

“Well…we wanna get away from all of this, so if there are no people, there won’t be any of these dead…undead things.” Glenn suggests.

“So we’re leaving the city.” Gloria concludes. 

She looks over at her brother and then back down at the streets. Glenn turns serious and tucks the sheathed knife into his belt, lightly pushing Gloria out of the way and climbs first over the ledge, carefully climbing down the ladder. Gloria follows him and soon they’re running through discreet pathways through the city. As Glenn was a pizza delivery guy, he knows all the best and quickest routes to anywhere in the city, including out of it.

“Never thought that delivering pizzas would give me such a useful skill.” Glenn grins as the two made it to the outskirts of the city.

As Glenn had predicted, the outside of the city didn’t have as many undead corpses since there weren’t that many people there either. There were more abandoned cars scattered along the roads, and one with tinted windows catches Glenn’s attention. 

“Woah! Look at this!” Glenn gleems excitedly, running over to the car, “It’s an RX7! I’ve always dreamed of driving one of these.”

Gloria rolls her eyes as she follows him, “Glenn, now is not the time for you to nerd out over your dream cars.” 

“I’m not nerding out! We won’t be getting far by foot, but this baby will take us to the next state! I’m gonna try to hotwire it.” Glenn says excitedly and goes over to the driver’s side.

“Do you even know how to? Just because they make it seem easy in the movies, doesn’t mean it is.” Gloria follows him, looking around in case their conversation attracts any undead. 

“That’s where I think you’re wrong si-” Glenn opens the door to the car and is surprised by an undead corpse in the driver’s seat lunging out at him, causing him to fall with the corpse on top of him. 

“Glenn!” Gloria shouts in panic, about to take her knife out from her belt when she hears the loud bang of a gunshot. 

The corpse on Glenn stops moving completely as he pushes it off of him. Gloria rushes over to help him up as they both look around for their saviour. 

“You two okay? He bit?” a voice calls out.

The siblings turn in the direction of the voice and see a man holding a handgun walking closer to them. Gloria looks over to Glenn at his question, holding her breath in fear as she searches his body for any injuries and lets her breath out when she doesn’t find any.

“I’m good, I’m good.“ Glenn reassures both of them, “Thank you, you saved my life.” 

The man nods and smiles at them, “No problem, saw a guy who needed help, and I helped. Name’s T-Dog.” 

Gloria chuckles, “T-Dog?”

“Well, okay real name Theodore Douglas, but everyone likes to call me T-Dog.” he laughs.

“Glenn.” he introduces himself and offers his hand out for a shake.

“Gloria.” she does the same, “so, where are you headed?”

T-Dog shrugs, “I don’t know, honestly, anywhere but here. What about you two?”

“We don’t know either, but like you, we don’t want to be anywhere near the city when it’s crawling with those things.” Glenn explains.

T-Dog nods, “Hey, tell you what, I got a van and we can travel wherever together, I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t think traveling alone is the best idea.” 

“You’re right, traveling alone is good for stealth and being quiet but with company, at least you have people who can watch your back.” Gloria says, crossing her arms and looks at Glenn.

He nods, “alright, I guess we’re a group now.” 

T-Dog leads the siblings to his van that he parked between a rummage of cars, disguising it as a broken down van so that no one would try to steal it. They get in and T’ starts the van, and they start to drive down the road heading to God-knows-where. Gloria and Glenn ask T’ questions to get to know the man better; it turns out that he used to play football and just before he found Glenn and Gloria, he went around rescuing the elderly from the undead. Then it’s T-Dog’s turn to ask questions, letting him learn about Glenn being a pizza delivery guy and Gloria an intern nurse studying to become a doctor. 

“So uh, I don’t mean to make this awkward but, are you two a thing or nah?” T-Dog questions hesitantly. 

“Sister! She’s my sister!” Glenn is quick to answer causing T-Dog to laugh. 

“Sorry! Sorry, I wasn’t sure and didn’t want to jump to conclusions just because you’re both Asian.” T-Dog defends himself.

Gloria chuckles as she starts to rummage through her bag, “It’s alright, honestly, we get that a lot. Mainly because people think we don’t look anything alike.” 

T-Dog glances over at them and back at the road again several times, “Nah, I can see the resemblance now that I actually look.” 

Glenn and Gloria laugh at this, then she pulls out three water bottles from her bag and a few snack bars, handing them over to Glenn and T-Dog. The three of them drive while eating and talking amongst themselves for what seems like hours until T’s van runs out of gas. Fortunately, Glenn tells them that he knows that there is a gas station not too far away and the siblings volunteer to go scavenge for gas as it’s T-Dog’s van, he needs to stay with it. They head off and find the gas station Glenn was talking about. Glenn starts to pump gas into containers while Gloria goes to scavenge more food and supplies. After getting as much as she can, Gloria rushes back out to meet with Glenn.

“Stop right there!” a deep voice calls out. 

Glenn looks over in the direction of the voice and sees a man with bushy hair wearing a sheriff uniform pointing a gun at Gloria. He quickly puts down the can of gasoline and raises his arms.

“W-we don’t want any trouble man, we were just getting gas.” Glenn tries to stay as calm as possible.

Gloria stands still, eyeing the man as he also analyses the two of them. 

“You guys got a group? A camp?” the man asks, his gun still pointing at Gloria.

“No. No, we don’t. We have a van and owner of said van.” Gloria replies, sarcastic and snarky remarks are her go-to defense mechanism which sometimes drives Glenn completely crazy especially given the situation they’re in.

“Is that what the gas is for?” the sheriff asks, his gun gestures to the canister of gas Glenn had gathered.

“Yeah, we were trying to get away from Atlanta but then ran out of gas.” Glenn explains, thinking that if they answer truthfully, this sheriff might let them go unscathed. 

The sheriff doesn’t seem to see them as a threat anymore as he puts his gun back into its holster, “My name is Shane, I have a camp at a quarry with others and we’re trying to build up our group. Safer in numbers, you get the deal. Would you two like to join us?” 

Gloria glances at Glenn and when he’s about to accept the offer, she speaks up, “how do we know we can trust you, I mean, you literally just pointed a gun at me.”

Glenn mentally facepalms as Shane chuckles, “you’re right, I did just point my gun at you, but you have to realize that I did it because I don’t know you, there are dangerous people out there and I’m not even talking about the walkers.” 

“You’re right! But you can trust us, we’re both good.” Glenn butts in, hoping his sister will shut up.

Shane smiles and nods, “let’s get going then,” he turns around and starts to walk them the way to the quarry.

“Wait,” Gloria calls out, “we weren’t lying about us having a van, our friend is back there waiting for us, he’s good too.” 

“Okay, let’s go get him, then.” 

Shane leads the siblings back to his car and they drive to where they had left T-Dog and his van. After explaining the situation to him, he agrees to go, liking the fact that they will have an actual camp to stay in. The four of them head off to the quarry and Shane introduces them to the inhabitants of the camp. Dale, an older man who owns the RV, gives them two tents and welcomes them to the group and camp. They get to know a few of the people living there and learn that they all refer to the undead as walkers, a term that they became used to as well.

A few days after the siblings got settled into the camp, Gloria finds that the group is almost out of water bottles. One of the members of the camp, Amy, told her that there is a stream in the woods that carries fresh water to the pond, and so Gloria went to fetch water for the group. Easily, she found the stream and starts to fill up water bottles and soon enough all the empty bottles she brought with her are now filled. Gloria starts to head back to the camp with the water in her bag when she spots something on the ground, a dead rabbit with an arrow sticking out of it. She leans down and picks it up, frowning at the death of such a cute animal when a voice cuts through her thoughts.

“Hey! Tha’s my rabbit!” 

Gloria looks around the woods, trying to find the owner of the voice and apparently rabbit, when her eyes land upon a rough looking man holding a crossbow aimed directly at her. And if looks could kill, Gloria was sure she’d be dead with the way those piercing blue eyes bore into hers. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note: This IS a Character Insert Series Rewrite so this WILL contain spoilers for the show. ALL Major Character deaths will not be changed!
> 
> I already have a large portion of this series posted on Tumblr and decided to post it here as well! I'll be posting a chapter every day until I'm caught up with what I have on Tumblr! Any comments are always appreciated!

“Hey! Tha’s my rabbit!” 

Gloria and the man with the crossbow eye each other carefully. She glances down at the arrow piercing the rabbit then back at the man and his crossbow. She matches the arrow with the weapon and confirms that this man is indeed the hunter who caught the animal. Gloria slowly holds her hand up, showing physically that she doesn’t want to cause any trouble. She gestures that she’s going to throw the rabbit to him and then she does, the carcass landing at the man’s feet. She makes up her mind to recruit this man, the group would appreciate a hunter. 

“You’re a hunter.” Gloria states the obvious, “do you have a camp?”

The man’s eyes narrow, “Why?”

“I have a camp just back there, we have a bunch of people, women and children. I know they’d appreciate any fresh meat a skilled hunter can provide. In return, we’ll give you a place to stay.” Gloria tries to convince him, letting the fact that she just gave a stranger their location slip her mind.

The man finally lowers his crossbow, “Nah, don’ need ya.” 

“What? Yes, you do. In case you haven’t noticed, Mr. Crossbow, the world has gone to shit and we’re all safer in numbers.” Gloria argues.

“I meant I don’ need a camp run by a damn girl!” he raises his voice in frustration. 

Gloria scoffs at this and almost lets her anger caused by his sexist comment take over when she remembers that the group needs this, she takes a deep breath and swallows her pride, “I don’t run the camp. A guy, a deputy named Shane, he runs the place. Is that good enough for you?”

“Ah, that’s plenty good, ain’ it lil’ brother?” another voice belts out in a southern drawl, a taller and seemingly older man walks out from a shroud of bush, a snarky grin on his face, “so, ya say ya got a group and a camp?”

Wary of being outnumbered, Gloria nods, “we’re in need of hunters, half of them don’t remember the last time they had fresh meat.” 

“Well then, you’re in luck! See, I’m the better hunter out o’ us Dixons, we’ll get fresh meat for ya, sweetheart.” the older man says as he claps the younger on the shoulder.

“I’ll take that as you accepting my offer to come back with me?” Gloria clarifies.

The older man eyes her up and down, “Oh, I’ll come back with ya any day.”

“Man, don’t ya ever shut it…” the crossbow wielder mutters under his breath, shaking his head. 

Gloria brushes off the last comment made by the older man, taking a mental note to stay away from him, “before I take you back to my camp, would you mind telling me your names?”

“Merle.” the older man says, his chest puffed up proudly as if announcing his name is a huge accomplishment.

“Daryl.” the crossbow wielder says, putting the strap of the weapon over his head and letting it hang on his shoulder and over his broad chest, “you?”

“Gloria.” she says simply, her and Daryl have a brief but intense eye contact, she feels that most people would be intimidated by this kind of stare, but she senses no danger in his gaze, “shall we get going then?”

“Lead the way!” Merle grins as he starts to follow Gloria to the camp, leaving Daryl behind him.

The three of them make it back to the camp and as there are two unfamiliar faces with Gloria, their appearance cause the others to become anxious. Gloria waves over to Shane and beckons him to come over, and as he does, Glenn follows.

“Gloria, who are they?” Shane says once he reaches him, his hand on his waist near his gun holster. 

“Shane, this is Merle and Daryl. They’re brothers, hunters. I was thinking that the others would like to have some fresh meat, you know, boost the morale. Plus, Carl and Sophia are still growing, it could do them a lot of good.” Gloria vouches for the brothers, she tries to read Shane’s expression as she poses her next question, “so, are you okay with them staying?” 

Rather than answering Gloria directly, Shane looks over at the brothers, “you guys willing to hunt for the group?”

“If it means we’ll get a place to get some good shut eye, then by all means, we’ll go and hunt for ya!” Merle grins at Shane. 

Daryl looks at Merle with a weird look and Gloria catches this, noticing that something doesn’t feel right with the situation. She doesn’t say anything though, in case it’s a private family issue. 

“Alright then, let’s go get you boys settled in, come with me.” Shane smiles and leads the brothers to the area near the RV.

Gloria is about to follow after them when Glenn grabs her arm and pulls her back, “where the hell were you? I was worried sick about you! You can’t just wander off into the woods without letting me know, you know how dangerous it is now out there?”

“Okay, first of all, Glenn, you gotta breathe,” Gloria says, holding a hand up as if showing a pause, “second, I went to go get water, Amy told me there’s a stream with fresh water in the woods. I didn’t feel right sitting around doing nothing, and with you always going on runs to Atlanta, I had to do something for the group.”

Glenn sighs and nods, “I get that… but is it really that hard to just let me know where you’re going? I asked everyone and they all said they didn’t know where you went.” 

“I told Amy though, did you ask her?” Gloria said, crossing her arms.

“She’s… the only one I didn’t ask…” Glenn admits, causing Gloria to chuckle, “just leave a note for me on my tent or something next time?”

Gloria nods and puts her arm around Glenn’s shoulders, “alright, I’ll do that. You know you’re really turning into mom with how much you worry?” 

Glenn rolls his eyes as they start making their way back to the main campsite. Once there, Gloria takes the now full water bottles out of her bag, placing them in a bin that was labelled ‘UNBOILED’. Glenn had gone back to the RV where T-Dog was studying a map with Dale. 

—

A few days after Gloria brought back the Dixon brothers to the camp, she realizes that she might have made a huge mistake. It turns out that when Merle says ‘we’ll hunt for you’, he actually means Daryl will hunt for the group while Merle sits in the camp and gets intoxicated and sometimes start issues within the group. He had already called T-Dog racist profanities multiple times, irritating the man and almost always needing Shane to break up the two before they start to throw punches. Daryl on the other hand, he actually kept his bargain and hunted for the group. 

“Hey Shane,” Gloria calls out to the deputy as she walks up to him, “I… am so so sorry for bringing someone like Merle to the camp… I had no idea that he’d be such an asshole.”

Shane chuckles at this and waves his hand in the air as if to dismiss Gloria, “Nah, don’t be sorry, you didn’t know. You were only looking out for the group. Now, if you did know how much of a problem he’d be but you still brought him, then I’d have a problem.”

“No, sir, I didn’t know.” Gloria smiles, “I still feel bad though, he’s been making everyone uncomfortable.”

“Don’t feel bad about it, it ain’t your fault.” Shane glances over at Merle then back at Gloria, “plus, it’s not like you didn’t bring anything good to the group, Daryl’s pulling his weight and providing for us.” 

Gloria nods but then sighs, “he is, but I feel bad for him too.”

Shane frowns at this, confused, “what for?”

“Daryl,” she looks over to the man in subject who looks to be fidgeting with his crossbow, “it feels like he has to work extra hard to make up for what his brother isn’t doing, he deserves better than that.”

“I know what you mean,” Shane sighs, “but I don’t think there’s anything we can do about it, that might just be their family dynamic and how they work as brothers, if that’s the case, you know that no one can change it.” 

Gloria nods sadly, “Yes, sir, I know.”

Shane eyes her at her words, “and what did I say about you calling me ‘sir’? Told you I don’t like that shit.”

Gloria shrugs, “Sorry, it just comes out naturally, especially when you’re in uniform, just happens… sir.” 

Shane laughs and shakes his head, he’s about to say something else when shouting is heard. The two look over in the direction of the voices and see that Merle and T-Dog have gotten into another fight. This time, Glenn is there with them and seems as though he’s trying to break up the fight. Gloria and Shane start making their way over to the three before any more damage can be done.

“Hey, seriously can you calm down?! Why do you have to start shit with people every day?!” Glenn shouts at Merle with his arms out, trying to keep T-Dog and Merle apart from each other.

“Why don’ ya stop tryin’ to get into other people’s business, ya damn chink!” Merle shouts back, smacking Glenn’s hand out of his face.

“You see this?!” T-Dog says angrily gesturing to Merle, “how do you expect me to keep calm when all he’s doing is shouting racist shit like that?!”

Glenn turns his attention to T-Dog, “I’m not saying you’re wrong, T’, bu-”

“O’ course ya gonna defend him, say he’s not wrong, ya colored bitches gotta stick together after the big ol’ white man, huh? Fuckin’ go back to where ya came from!” Merle shouts loudly, swaying on his own two feet.

“That’s enough!” Gloria marches in between the three men, Shane on the outskirts of the fight, ready to jump in if needed, “that type of shit is not welcome here, you take it back and apologize to them, right now!”

Merle scoffs and holds his head high, “Merle don’ apologize to anybody! Let alone a damn black man and a chinaman!”

Gloria glares at him and walks right up to Merle, getting into his face, “I’d advise you to stop that shit, right now.” 

“Oh yeah? Or what?” Merle doesn’t back down and challenges her further.

“Or you’re gonna let everyone see that you got your ass handed to you by a girl. Now wouldn’t that be embarrassing?” Gloria says lowly in a dangerous tone.

“I’d like to see what a slanty-eyed ho like ya can do to me.” Merle then belts out a laugh. 

Gloria steps back, closes her eyes, and lets out a deep breath. Daryl, who had been near the brother’s tents comes out and sees the crowd around his brother, he comes closer to the scene about to call out to Merle and asks what’s going on when Gloria swings a punch and hits Merle right in the face, knocking him down. Shane, T-Dog and Daryl, as well as the other onlookers in the camp are completely shocked by her actions while Glenn crosses his arms with a small hidden smile, knowing this was coming. 

Merle gets up, very obviously raged, wipes the blood from his now split lip, “You bitch!” he lunges forward to pounce on Gloria.

Gloria readjusts her feet and readies herself for Merle’s attack. She swiftly dodges Merle’s punch and counters it by grabbing his arm, turning her back towards him and flips him over her shoulder, throwing the man onto the ground. Gloria grunts as she twists Merle’s arm, causing him to shout in pain as she dislocates his shoulder. 

At this point, Daryl rushes over to the fight, “hey stop! Let him go!” 

Gloria does as Daryl asked and let go of Merle’s arm. Daryl goes to help his brother who pushes him off once he’s on his feet. 

Not wanting to give up his pride, Merle glares at Gloria as his hand presses on his injured shoulder, “I guess I should have known a chinawoman would know Kung Fu.” 

“One,” Gloria starts as she starts walking up to Merle again, “I know Taekwondo, not Kung Fu. Two, we’re Korean, not Chinese. And three,” she gets in Merle’s face again, “I hear you say any type of that bullshit to anyone again, I’ll do more than just dislocate your arm.” 

With one final glare, Gloria turns and retreats back to the campsite with Glenn, T-Dog and Shane following behind her. Daryl’s eyes haven’t left Gloria, he’s quite impressed that a small girl like her was able to hurt Merle. He goes over to him and ushers his brother back to their camp. 

Back at the main campsite, Shane goes over to Gloria with a smirk, “I guess you just made up for bringing Merle to the group.” 

Gloria laughs at this, “Yeah, yeah I guess I did.” 

—

Days have passed since Gloria showed Merle his place, and he had seemingly learned his lesson and stayed away from the main campsite in general. The group had run out of water again and Gloria took it upon herself to collect more from the stream, but not before leaving a note to Glenn, telling him where she was headed to prevent him from freaking out again. She goes back out to the same stream and fills up the bottles, on her way back she’s looking around for mushrooms when she bumps into Daryl. 

“Hey.” she calls to him as he grunts to her in response, she walks closer to him, “how’s Merle’s arm?”

Daryl scoffs at her question, “What, are ya worried ‘bout him now? We popped it back the day ya did the damage, he’s good.” 

“That’s good, I was just gonna say that if it’s still not better, I’d help him take a look at it.” Gloria’s words earn her a weird look from Daryl, “What?”

“Ya hurt him and then ya talk ‘bout takin’ a look at yer work? What are ya, some kinda serial killer?!” Daryl raises his voice at her.

“I have training in the medical field, I used to be a nurse before the world went to shit. Yeah, you’re right, I was the one who hurt him but I’m also willing to help him if he needs it.” Gloria explains, “he may be an asshole, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t deserve proper medical attention.” 

Daryl gives her a look that Gloria isn’t able to comprehend, “if Merle ever comes to ya, it ain’ gon’ be for medical attention… he ain’ gon’ let what happened slide, so jus’ watch ya back.”

“Well, he seems like he learned his lesson, hasn’t been starting any arguments with T’ lately.” Gloria shrugs, “but then again, you’re his brother, you’d know him best.”

“Yeah… jus’ stay away from him, Merle never stays quiet for long.” Daryl mutters.

There is a silence between them as Gloria shifts on her feet, “so, what did you catch so far?” 

“Jus’ these.” Daryl says, gesturing to the line of squirrels and a single rabbit hanging off his belt. 

“Merle doesn’t hunt, does he.” Gloria says more as a statement than a question.

Daryl just grunts as a response, then turns to return to hunting. Gloria follows him, her curiosity getting the better of her; she’s never witnessed a hunter at work before. Daryl leads as he stealthily goes around the woods, examining the ground for any tracks he can pick up.

“He used to.” Daryl whispers.

Gloria looks at him, “what?”

“Merle used to hunt. Used to take me out huntin’, but he doesn’ anymore. Now all he does is smoke up or get drunk.” Daryl explains, smacking away branches that get in his way with his hands. 

“So, he leaves it all to you?” Gloria didn’t know why, but she liked talking to Daryl and getting to know him.

Daryl grunts a yes then pauses, stops walking and turns his head to face her, “would ya stop followin’ me?” 

Gloria frowns at his sudden change, confused and slightly shocked, “What?”

“All yer questions an’ the way ya walk, scarin’ off any game here!” Daryl raises his voice. 

Gloria rolls her eyes and scoffs, “I don’t think you’re really helping with all your yelling, but fine, you want me to go, I’ll go,” she starts to walk off but then stops and turns around when she remembers something, “be careful if you’re gonna walk along the creek, it’s pretty slippery there.” 

Daryl waves her off and turns back around as Gloria does the same, walking back to the camp. She doesn’t get very far though as she soon hears a loud thump from behind her followed by a string of Daryl cursing. Gloria turns around and rushes back to Daryl and finds him on the ground near the creek where she told him to be careful. 

“You alright?” she asks as she makes her way to his side and helps him up, but not without an amused smile on her face. 

“‘M fine…the hell ya laughin’ at?” Daryl glares at her.

Gloria shrugs, “well, I did tell you to be careful, but clearly you don’t listen very well, do you?”

Daryl rolls his eyes and doesn’t say anything else. Looking around, he finds his crossbow lying on the ground and goes to pick it up with his left hand but winces in pain.

“The hell?” Daryl looks down at his wrist and sees that it’s swollen.

Gloria’s smile is now replaced with a look of concern, “Here, let me take a look,” she holds out her hands, urging Daryl to let her examine his wrist to which he slowly but hesitantly does, “it looks like you sprained it.” 

“Great.” Daryl groans, taking his arm back from Gloria, he picks up his crossbow with his good hand. 

Gloria looks at Daryl and notices that he has a gash on his right temple, “we should head back to the camp so I can help you stitch that up.” 

“Why the hell ya wan’ to help me?!” Daryl snaps at her.

Gloria sighs at his words, she’s already gotten used to this type of behaviour from when she was a nurse, “Like I said before, I used to be a nurse and I know that I can help you. Plus, we can’t have our one and only useful hunter hurt. Now, come on.” 

She ushers him back to their camp and she tries to get Daryl to come with her to the main campsite so she can patch up his wound. However, Daryl doesn’t budge but he also knows Gloria doesn’t want to go back to where him and his brother’s tents are set up. 

“Tell you what, you sit there and I’ll bring the first aid kit.” Gloria suggests, gesturing to an alignment of rocks meant to be a small sitting area. 

Daryl nods then heads over to the rocks, sitting down and waits for Gloria to return with the first aid kit. When she returns to him, she gets to work right away, opening the first aid kit and ripping open an alcohol swab to clean Daryl’s wound. 

“This might sting a little.” Gloria says gently before leaning closer to Daryl and gently dabbing on and around the wound. 

Daryl closes his eyes and does his best not to let it show that the stinging is hurting him. Being attentive and good at her job, Gloria notices this and lightly blows on the wound, attempting to soothe it as she continues with her work. Once the wound is cleaned, Gloria looks over it and smiles as she sees that it isn’t as bad as she thought.

“Doesn’t look like it needs stitches after all, I’ll just pop a bandage on it, then I’ll take a look at your wrist.” Gloria explains to him, going through the kit and finding the bandage she was talking about.

Daryl opens his eyes and watches her as she unwraps a small piece of bandage and cuts a proper sized piece. She then does the same with a roll of surgical tape, matching the length of the bandage.

“Come here.” Gloria looks up at him with the pieces of bandage and tape in her hands, ushering him to come closer so that she can patch up the cut.

He obliges and leans closer to her, blushing slightly at how close she is to him as he’s not used to being close with anyone, period. Gloria doesn’t notice this as she is focused on gently placing the bandage and tape on his cut. 

“Thanks..” Daryl says, looking down at his feet, wishing that his blush would go away.

“It’s no problem. It doesn’t look like it’ll scar so you don’t have to worry about your pretty face.” Gloria chuckles, noticing finally that Daryl isn’t very comfortable, “let’s take a look at that wrist now.”

She holds up her hand and waits for him to give her his arm to examine. Daryl stares at her then at her raised hand, then hesitantly but surely gives her his arm. Gloria gently holds his arm with one hand, then uses her other to gently press on parts of his arm, starting with his forearm. As she goes down his arm, gently but firmly putting pressure, she continuously asks if it hurts more. Daryl keeps shaking his head but when she gets to his wrist, he hisses in pain and curses under his breath.

“Sorry.” Gloria says automatically at his reaction. 

She then starts to gently massage on and around the swollen parts of his arm, Daryl doesn’t say anything or pull away, he just sits there watching her as she massages. 

“It’s sprained. Massaging will help spread the dead muscle and blood tissue, that’s what causes the pain.” Gloria explains as she continues to gently massage.

She was sure that Daryl already knew what caused the pain from a strain, she figured that he did since he knew how to pop back a dislocated shoulder. Gloria just had to distract herself from certain thoughts about the man sitting in front of her as she touched his muscles; she’d always been attracted to a man with strong arms and Daryl was definitely a strong armed man. 

“That should be good for now,” Gloria says after a small while of massaging Daryl’s wrist, “let me know if it still hurts or starts to swell, but it shouldn’t.“ 

Daryl nods and takes his arm back, "thanks.”

Gloria packs up her first aid kit and closes it. She smiles at Daryl and pats his shoulder before getting up and walking back to the main campsite. Just before she reaches it, she turns back to look at Daryl to see him still watching her from where he was seated. They share a brief but intense eye contact before he looks down, then heads back to his and his brothers tents to rest for the night.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note: This IS a Character Insert Series Rewrite so this WILL contain spoilers for the show. ALL Major Character deaths will not be changed!
> 
> I already have a large portion of this series posted on Tumblr and decided to post it here as well! I'll be posting a chapter every day until I'm caught up with what I have on Tumblr! Any comments are always appreciated!

It had been a few days since Gloria helped Daryl with his injuries when he fell in the woods. The two haven’t talked much since then, Daryl seemed to be purposely avoiding her and keeping his distance from the campsite in general. He had already went out into the woods to hunt fresh meat for the group. Gloria was sitting around the unlit campfire with Carol as she looked after her daughter, Sophia, and Carl, a boy close to Sophia’s age. **  
**

“So, how’s the end of the world treating you?” Gloria asks Carol, breaking the silence.

Carol smiles softly at her, “not too bad, we have a safe camp, and I have my daughter. What more could I ask for? What about you?”

“I’d like to think we’re pretty blessed, given the circumstances. Although… I do wish Glenn didn’t have to go into the city alone so often for supplies.” Gloria sighs, admitting her worry for her brother.

“He’s doing a very brave thing, your brother. We owe him a lot,” Carol pats Gloria’s back gently, “I also heard that they’re planning a big run with a few others into the city.” 

Gloria looks at Carol, her eyebrow raised, “Really?”

“Well, that’s what I heard from Dale.” Carol shrugs, she then looks up to see Lori, Carl’s mother, walking by, “Good morning, Lori.”

Carol’s call out to her makes Lori stop in her tracks and looks over to her and Gloria sitting there with the kids. She gives a forced smile then carries on her way into the woods. Gloria frowns slightly but then notices that someone else is lurking in the woods, seemingly waiting for Lori. 

Gloria turns to Carol and leans in to whisper to her so the kids don’t hear her, “what do you think she’s up to? I’ve seen her sneaking off quite a bit lately.”

Carol does the same and whispers back, “I can’t be completely certain, but I think I’ve seen her getting particularly close with Shane, I mean, they knew each other before I even met them.” 

“But… Shane isn’t Carl’s dad, right?” Gloria asks, she never wanted to pry into any of the other inhabitant’s private lives but her curiosity was getting the best of her.

Carol shakes her head, “No, I don’t think I’ve ever heard Carl calling Shane dad, I think I heard that Lori lost her husband just before everything happened.”

“And she’s with another man already?” Gloria looks at Carol with a shocked look; she’s usually not one to judge another’s choices, but Lori really didn’t look the type to move on so fast.

“Well, who can really blame her? With everything that’s happened, I think she needs someone to lean on, I know I would. Not everyone is as strong as you are, Gloria.” Carol smiles at Gloria.

Gloria scoffs in embarrassment at Carol’s words and shakes her head, about to deny the older woman’s words until Sophia calls for her mother.

“Mommy, look!” Sophia excitedly exclaims, holding up a drawing she just created, “it’s me and you!”

Carol smiles lovingly at her daughter, “I love it, sweetie.”

Gloria leans her arms on her knees, leaning in while smiling at Sophia, “wow, you did that? It’s just as beautiful as your mom!” 

Sophia gleems at her words, giggling and looking back at her masterpiece, and then it’s Carl’s turn to want attention, “look at mine!” he says, holding up his drawing of a dinosaur.

“Is that a t-rex?!” Gloria asks excitedly, wanting to hype up the little boy.

Carl grins proudly and nods, “Yeah! Look at it’s sharp teeth! Isn’t it scary?”

“Yep, super scary. Oh man, I don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep tonight after seeing that, I might have nightmares!” Gloria pretends to cower back and shiver, causing the boy to laugh.

Carl holds the drawing out closer to Gloria and makes a growling noise and Gloria growls back playfully, Carol and Sophia laughing at the amusing scene in front of them. Carol’s laughter is cut short by her husband, Ed, as he calls out to her and Sophia to return back to their tent. She looks to Gloria apologetically and goes off with her daughter. Gloria shoots her a sympathetic look as she watches the two walk away; she felt that there was something off about Ed the first time she laid eyes on him, but she had no proof that anything was happening within the small family.

“Hey,” Glenn greets as he sits down where Carol was sitting previously, “we’re planning a group run into the city tomorrow.” 

Gloria nods, “I heard, Carol told me. Who’s going with you?”

“T-Dog, Andrea, Jacqui, Morales and… Merle.” Glenn sighs as he says the last name on the list.

“He’s going with you guys? Are you sure that’s a good idea?” she frowns at the mention of Merle as well.

“I don’t like it either, but Dale says that we should give the guy a chance to prove himself or something.” Glenn explains, a look of worry still etched on his face.

“Well… I guess we shouldn’t really argue with Dale. Plus, there are more of you than him, if he does start anything, you guys can back each other up,” Gloria says, putting her arm around Glenn’s shoulders, “you should watch your back though, if he can’t get revenge on me, he might target you.” 

Glenn looks at her then nods, “I will.” he then turns his attention to Carl who’s adding more to his dinosaur drawing, “Hey buddy, is that a t-rex?!”

—

Later that day, Daryl had come back from a very successful hunting trip as he brought back a deer for the group. The others had helped him skin the animal and prepare for a nice feast that evening. The fire was lit and the inhabitants of the camp had taken their seats around the campfire, even both the Dixon brothers had decided to join them.

“I can’t believe that after all this time, we still don’t know anything about our new recruits!” Dale proclaimed as everyone was enjoying their dinner, “Glenn, Gloria, why don’t you two talk a bit about yourselves?” 

The siblings look at each other then the rest of the anticipating group, surprised and slightly embarrassed by the sudden attention. 

“What about them?” Gloria says, gesturing to the Dixon brothers, “They’re new too, technically, they’re newer than us.” 

“Nuh uh, ladies first.” Merle pipes up with a mocking grin on his face.

Daryl doesn’t say anything in protest, then Gloria looks to Glenn who shrugs and then gestures for her to start talking. Gloria scoffs at her brother and shoots him a playful glare.

“Alright then,” Gloria clears her throat, “where do I begin?” 

“You could start with where you were before all this started. What you were doing with your life, stuff like that.” Shane smirked at her, clearly knowing that she did not want to talk about yourself.

Gloria squints at him then sighs, “Well, Glenn and I were born and raised in Michigan. I decided I wanted to go to school at the Georgia State University..” 

“What did you major in?” Amy asks curiously. 

“I double majored in health sciences and music. My parents didn’t really want me to go into the musical field so I had to negotiate with them that if I study to become a doctor then they’d have to let me study music at the same time.” Gloria explains, “I was also interning as a nurse at a hospital just before this all started.” 

“We have a doctor amongst us!” Dale exclaims happily, raising his cup of his old liquor in joy.

The rest also raised their cups, expressing their thanks and happiness that they have a person with a medical background in their group. Gloria smiles shyly and looks to Glenn to take some of the attention away from her.

Glenn chuckles at her then clears his throat, “and while she was busy studying to be the first rockstar doctor, I’ve just been delivering pizzas all over the city.”

This information caused Merle to belt out a laugh, “so you’re just saying that you’re the blacksheep of the family? Letting yer sister do all the hard work while you’re just delivering pizzas?” 

“Well… I…” Glenn’s face blushes a deep red in embarrassment, unable to find words.

“He’s not a blacksheep or anything close to that, alright?” Gloria speaks up, angry that Glenn is being put down, “He could have gotten his own education, he’s smart enough to do that on his own, but do you know why he decided to come to Atlanta with me? He wanted to make sure I had everything provided for me, so he worked his ass off to pay for my education. I wouldn’t have been able to study to become a doctor if he hadn’t sacrificed his own education for mine!”

Glenn puts his hand on Gloria’s back to calm her down, “it’s okay, stop.” he whispers into her ear.

Merle rolls his eyes at Gloria’s rant, “and yet he still needs his baby sister to defend him.”

“Merle… jus’ shut it…” Daryl mutters quietly so that only his brother can hear; he’d stopped eating and was just looking down at his plate ever since Merle opened his mouth the first time.

“You know what? Why don’t you tell us about you and what you’ve accomplished then because I’m sure you aren’t the blacksheep of your family.” Glenn says angrily, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Now huffing with anger at Glenn’s words, Merle starts to lunge forward to him but Daryl catches him first before he reaches Glenn. Daryl holds him back then eventually pushes him back in the direction to the brothers’ tents.

“Merle, tha’s enough!” Daryl shouts, glaring at his brother. 

Merle, still panting angrily, finally storms off to his tent but not before shooting Daryl a glare that clearly said he’s going to get it later. 

Daryl sighs and sits back down, “Sorry ‘bout him, he never actually gets along wit’ anyone unless they’re drunk or high.” 

An awkward silence is evident around the campfire when Gloria tries to lighten up the mood, “hey, I don’t think we’ve thanked Daryl yet for the deer, this is probably the most any of us have eaten since the world ended.”

“That is true! Let’s drink to that, to Daryl and his deer!” Dale says happily, once again raising his cup.

The others follow suit, all thanking Daryl for the fresh meat as he shifts uncomfortably, not used to the positive attention. 

“Hey Daryl, do you have any hunting stories?” Carl asks excitedly, sitting in his mother’s lap.

“Uh…” Daryl hesitates then he catches Gloria’s eyes as she gives him an encouraging nod, “well, there was tha’ one time I was huntin’ for squirrels in the woods and I saw a chupacabra.” 

“A chupacabra? What’s that?” Carl asks, looking up at Shane like he had all the answers.

Shane grins and leans forward, “Chupacabra? It’s like a vampire-dog, or something like that.” 

This causes the rest of the group to start chuckling, making it obvious that they don’t believe Daryl’s story. 

He looks around and glares at the group laughing at him, “ya don’ believe me?” 

Trying to stifle his laughter, Dale responds, “well Daryl, you’re asking us to believe in a mythical creature.” 

“I know what I saw.” Daryl says firmly, still glaring at everyone laughing at him.

Gloria tilts her head, “you know, that actually reminds me of the time we went camping and I saw Bigfoot.” 

“Gloria, you did not see Bigfoot.” Glenn says as he facepalms in second hand embarrassment.

“Yes, I did. You, mom, dad, and Gena kept telling me it was a bear but I know what I saw, it was Bigfoot.” Gloria argues, the rest of the group now amused by the bickering of the two siblings.

“That’s because it was a bear! Gloria, you were 6, how would you know what you saw?” Glenn is adamant on his point.

“First of all, I was 7. Second, I showed you the footprints, they were this big,” Gloria holds her hands up and demonstrates that the footprint was close to 2 feet long, “no bear has this big a foot, but do you know what has a foot this big?”

Glenn is about to retort when Daryl beats him to it, “Bigfoot.” the others, including Gloria and Glenn, turn to look at him, “I believe ya.”

Gloria grins at him, “Thank you! I believe you too,” she raises her arm in expectation for a high five to which Daryl hesitantly but eventually reciprocates; the two of them share a look, hinting at a mutual trust towards one another. 

The rest of the night carries on with stories of Dale’s past and Andrea and Amy’s fishing trips. The group drink and dine until it gets late and the children are falling asleep in their parent’s arms. 

—

In the morning, Glenn is getting the planned group prepared for the supply run into the city. The others who are not going on the run had given them a list of items to look out for. Glenn is looking over the map of the city, going over which places to search and where to avoid. Everyone going, including Merle, were listening to his instruction and taking mental notes. Gloria’s leaning by the RV listening as well, she figured that in case things went sideways, she’d at least know what places to go to start looking for the group. 

“Hey Gloria.” Daryl calls out as he walks towards the campsite, beckoning her to come over to him.

“What’s up?” Gloria says as she approaches him, “your wrist okay?”

Daryl hums and nods, not looking at her, “this ain’ ‘bout that. Are ya goin’ on the run?”

“No, I’m not. Why? Is there anything you needed from the city? I can ask Glenn to-” she gets cut off by Daryl.

“Can ya go?” he finally looks up at her to see her blinking at him, looking confused at his request, “Merle’s goin’ with ‘em, right?” Daryl confirms as she nods, “I need ya to go to keep him in check, make sure he don’ get himself or anyone else killed, ya know?”

Understanding what Daryl’s inferring, she nods, “You sure I can do that?”

“You’re the only one wit’ enough guts to kick his ass, so I’d say yeah, ya can.” Daryl smirks at her.

This earns a chuckle out of Gloria who finally agrees, “Alright fine, but I can’t guarantee your brother will be in one piece if he starts shit with anyone.”

Daryl scoffs and rolls his eyes, “just don’ kill him and we’ll be fine.” 

“No promises,” Gloria chuckles again, “but how come you don’t go yourself, you seem to be fine with keeping him in check.”

Daryl makes a face and shakes his head, “Nah, I was plannin’ to go huntin’, wanted to go out further in the woods, see if I can get another buck or somethin’. I’ll prolly be out for a day or two.” 

Understanding, Gloria nods, “Alright, you be careful out there though. Watch out for any creeks.” she teases with a smile.

Scoffing and rolling his eyes again, “yeah, whatever. Ya be careful too.” 

Daryl turns and makes his way back to his and his brother’s tents and Gloria goes to Glenn who had just finished explaining the plan to the other runners. 

“Glenn!” she calls out to her brother, making him turn around to face her, “what’s the plan, I’m going with you guys.”

Glenn frowns at this, “What? Why?” 

Gloria glances around her and then back at Glenn, she starts to speak in Korean in fear of Merle eavesdropping on the two, “ _the loud idiot is going with you, I don’t trust him going with you guys_.”

“ _I thought we talked about this, we’ll be fine. I’ll watch my back along with the others_.” Glenn responds back in Korean.

“ _His brother thinks I should go with you because I’m the only one who can kick his ass. He asked me to go and keep him in check, I already told him I would_.” Gloria explains, again in their mother tongue.

Glenn stays silent for a bit, thinking to himself then finally nods, responding back in English, “alright, fine, here’s the plan…”

Gloria listens intently to the plan Glenn had mapped out on the city map, taking in every detail to make sure as best she can that nothing goes sideways. The group gets into the truck and are about to head off into the city. Glenn makes it a very important point to not wander off alone and to keep as quiet as possible so as to not attract any unwanted attention, whether it be from walkers or other people. To put simple, the plan is to get in, get what they need, then get out. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note: This IS a Character Insert Series Rewrite so this WILL contain spoilers for the show. ALL Major Character deaths will not be changed!
> 
> I already have a large portion of this series posted on Tumblr and decided to post it here as well! I'll be posting a chapter every day until I'm caught up with what I have on Tumblr! Any comments are always appreciated!

The group had driven to the outskirts of Atlanta, parking their truck outside and walking the rest of the way into the city. They had used Glenn’s planned routes, the ones he had learned of in his experience as a pizza delivery guy. Going through their list of supplies to retrieve, the group scavenge through stores undetected and eventually make it to their main destination: a large department store. Continuing to scavenge the shelves of the store, they suddenly hear a number of gunshots outside within the city. 

“What was that?” Andrea, Amy’s older sister, asks, worry evident in her voice.

“Gunshots, someone’s here other than us.” Gloria points out, “I’m gonna head up to the roof to check it out.”

Gloria rushes to the stairway and makes her way to the roof of the building, followed by Glenn, T-Dog and Merle. Once they get there, they go over to the ledge of the building and see a large horde of walkers in the distance, seeming to be devouring something as the walkers pile in one spot. More gunshots are heard in that direction and they finally see the one responsible for the commotion: a man fighting for his life, shooting walkers as he heads for a tank.

“What the hell does he think he’s doing?!” T-Dog watches in horror as more walkers can be seen entering the vicinity.

“Attracting more walkers straight to us.” Gloria breathes, trying to calm herself as she tries to think of what to do.

Glenn adjusts his hat and the strap of his bag, “I’m going after him.”

Gloria spins around to face him, “What? No! You are not going out there, that’s suicide!”

“We can’t leave him out there alone either, he needs help! Plus, someone needs to stop him from shooting and attracting more walkers to the city.” Glenn tries to reason with her as he walks to the stairway.

“Fine, but I’m coming with you, the hell am I letting you go alone.” Gloria says, following him. 

Glenn turns and stops her, “no, you stay here and make sure he doesn’t kill anyone, keep him in check,” he gestures to Merle who is looking down to the streets from the ledge of the building. 

Gloria sighs, defeated as she remembers that she had promised Daryl to keep Merle in check as well, “Fine… T-Dog, you go with him and make sure the entrance is clear so they have a safe way back.” 

T-Dog nods, “you got it,” 

Glenn and T-Dog rush down the stairway and a little while later, Andrea comes up to the rooftop, wanting to see what the plan is. Gloria is looking off into the distance of the tank as she tries to keep an eye out for Glenn. 

“Is that where the gunshots came from?” Andrea asks, looking in the direction Gloria is facing.

She nods, “Yeah, Glenn went to see if he can help the guy…”

“Oh my god….” Andrea groans out of worry and puts her hand on her forehead, “That guy’s gonna get us all trapped in this city full of walkers.” 

“Try not to stress about it, alright? Once Glenn gets back, we’ll take the planned route out of the city, we already have enough supplies to last us, all we gotta do now is wait for Glenn then get back.” Gloria tries to offer comfort but Andrea doesn’t seem to be having it.

“What we should have done is try to get out of here right when we heard those gunshots! Walkers from miles away might have heard them and are making their way here, what the hell was Glenn thinking wanting to help someone who might not even be a good person?! Does he want a good Samaritan medal or does he have some kind of hero complex?!” Andrea shouts, enraged and distressed. 

Gloria scoffs, about to shout back at Andrea when Merle speaks up, “hey there, sugartits, calm down will ya? Now, I know ya stressed, how ‘bout ya come to Merle and I’ll show ya the best way to relieve ya stress?” 

Andrea looks at him with a disgusted look on her face, “Go to hell.” 

She storms off back down the stairs into the department store. Gloria looks at Merle and she silently thanks him for pissing off Andrea even if he didn’t mean to do it, that woman was getting on her nerves. She looks back to the vicinity of the tank and waits patiently for Glenn to come back. Merle starts to talk, not to anyone in particular, just wanting to strike up a conversation with anyone who would respond or give him a reaction. Gloria sighs as she drowns out his voice as best she can until she hears a loud gunshot coming from beside her. Merle had gotten bored and picked up a sniper rifle the group had brought with them in case of emergency.

“Merle, what the hell are you doing?! Put that down!” Gloria rushes over to him as he continues to play target practice with the walkers on the streets.

Merle turns to her and aims the rifle at her when she comes close enough to try and take the fun away, “Stop right there, sunshine.” he smirks when she holds her hands up, “oh, not so tough now, are ya?” 

Gloria hears the door to the stairway open but doesn’t dare to turn her attention away from Merle who is still holding the gun pointed at her. She hears multiple footsteps then relief overcomes her when she hears Glenn’s voice.

“Hey, Merle, stop. Put that down, you don’t wanna do this.” Glenn says, inching closer slowly with his hand out. 

“And ya know what I wanna do and not do? I ain’ about to take orders from you, chinaman.” Merle glares at him. 

The rest of the group is now on the rooftop because of the commotion Merle’s gunshots have caused. Andrea and Jacqui are in the back as they are afraid and not sure what to do to diffuse the situation. T-Dog, Morales, and the new guy Glenn had saved from the tank all surround Merle. 

“Why the hell you firing shots for? You know that attracts the walkers right up to us! You crazy or something?! You’re gonna get us killed!” T-Dog shouts at him, walking closer to him to try to take the gun away. 

Merle looks over at T-Dog and sees that he’s coming closer to him, he growls and uses the butt of the gun to hit him in the face. T-Dog stumbles backwards and falls on his backside. Merle takes advantage of this and gets on top of T-Dog and starts to punch him continuously. Glenn, Gloria, and the new guy try to pull Merle off of T-Dog but Merle is too strong, he ends up punching the new guy to the ground as well. Angered from getting punched, the new guy grabs Merle’s hand and locks a handcuff to his wrist and uses all his strength to pull him away to a pipe on the ground, locking the cuffs in place. 

“Get these things off o’ me!” Merle shouts in anger, pulling at the cuffs and struggling to get out.

“Yeah, I don’t think so.” the guy who cuffed Merle starts to search his body for any other weapons and backs off when he doesn’t find any.

Jacqui and Andrea are tending to T-Dog, making sure he’s okay. Gloria looks at Glenn and catches his eye, he nods to her letting her know that he’s fine.

“Hey, mister… Sheriff?” Gloria says as she approaches the new guy who she noticed is wearing a sheriff’s uniform, one similar to Shane’s.

“Rick Grimes.” he introduces himself as he looks at her.

“Gloria.” she says, nodding once, “what the hell were you doing down there with just a gun?”

“Heard that there’s refuge at Atlanta, thought I’d take my chances. Didn’t know there’d be no chance to take.” Rick answers with a sigh.

“You got that right, there ain’t no refugee camp, no army to take us in, only place we got is on the outside of the city at a quarry.” Morales explains to Rick. 

“And how do we expect to get back to our safe place, the streets are filled with walkers.” Andrea points out the obvious.

Rick ponders for a moment, “We might not need to use the streets, we could try underground.” 

“He’s right.” Jacqui voices out, “Old building like this built in the 20s, big structures often had drainage tunnels into the sewers in case of flooding down in the sub-basements.” 

“How do you know that?” Glenn questions, worry in his voice.

“It’s my job, well, was. I worked in the city zoning office. “ Jacqui explains. 

Rick nods, “Alright, let’s go and check it out. But someone needs to stay behind and keep watch on this guy.” he gestures over to Merle.

“I’ll do it.” T-Dog coughs as he gets up, “I’ll watch over him.”

Gloria looks at him with concern, “Are you sure? I know how you feel about being near him, I can stay.”

“Nah, you deserve a break from this asshole’s bullshit.” T-Dog pats Gloria’s arm, encouraging her to go with the others.

She smiles and nods at him, then rushes to join Glenn and the others who have already made their way to the basement of the building. Once there, the group huddles around the underground sewer system, Glenn confirms that this is the only thing he’s seen that goes down but he’s never actually gone down it before.

“I’m gonna hate myself for saying this… but since I’m arguably the fastest here, I’m going down there and taking only one of you with me. It can’t be Rick, I’d feel better if you’re outside covering us with your gun, and Andrea should go with him, you’re the only other one with a gun. Gloria, I trust you to stay here with Jacqui and holler at us if shit happens. So, that leaves Morales, you okay with that?” Glenn instructs everyone.

Morales nods, “You got it, buddy.” 

“Alright, we all know our jobs, let’s get to it.” Rick says as he starts to head out with Andrea to the front of the department store. 

Gloria and Jacqui stay back as they watch Glenn and Morales climb down the ladder to the sewers and walking into the dark tunnel. Jacqui puts her hand on Gloria’s shoulder as comfort since she knows she’s afraid for her brother’s safety. Gloria forces a smile on her face as she looks at Jacqui, putting her hand on the other woman’s hand as a silent thank you. Shortly after, they hear Glenn and Morales coming back out of the tunnel they had originally went into.

“Nope, it’s a dead end down there. We gotta find some other way.” Glenn says breathlessly as he climbs up the ladder followed by Morales.

Gloria lets out a breath of relief that Glenn is safe, “let’s go get the others and head back up to the roof then, it stinks down here.”

They follow Gloria’s words and head back up to the roof with Rick and Andrea, meeting up with T-Dog and Merle. They explain to him the situation with the sewers and try to think of another way out. As the group discusses and tries to come up with a plan, Rick figures out that they can disguise themselves as walkers to get to a truck then distract them with sound. He nominates himself and Glenn, who is very against the idea but goes along with it anyway. Without having any other plan, the group set to work and dissect two walkers and cover up Glenn and Rick with their insides, but not without Glenn throwing up in the process. Rick and Glenn set off and the rest of the group are on the roof anxiously watching them walk amongst a herd of walkers. 

“Hey… hey! That cop walk out o’ here wit’ ‘em keys!?” Merle starts to panic at the realization that he might be stuck on the rooftop.

T-Dog turns around and pulls a key out of his pocket, “Nah, he left them with me.” 

Merle’s face drops at his words and mutters to himself. Suddenly, thunder is heard as the group just realizes how dark the clouds have gotten. Inevitably, rain starts to fall.

“Shit… it has to rain now?! It won’t wash off their guts, will it?” Gloria says, panic full in her voice. 

The group continues to watch, now worried as they see that walkers seem to have noticed Glenn and Rick are alive as the two start to fight off walkers. Gloria silently prays for them to get out unscathed and sighs, relieved when she sees them narrowly escaping the horde.

“Wait… where are they going? They can’t just leave us!” Andrea exclaims in a fear.

“They won’t! Glenn wouldn’t.” Gloria tells her. 

As the group waits for the two to return, Andrea starts to cry, expressing that she thinks they had just left the rest of them to die. 

“Gloria! T-Dog! Guys, can you hear me?!” Glenn’s voice sounds over their handheld radio, catching the attention of everyone on the roof. 

T-Dog rushes over to the device and picks it up, “Yo, we hear you.” 

“Get ready to head downstairs, we’re gonna pick you up!” Glenn says over the radio.

Without hesitation, the group starts to collect their things along with the supplies they’ve scavenged. Andrea and Jacqui are the first ones out the door, followed by Morales. T-Dog and Gloria pack up the last of their things and stop as they notice Merle shouting for them to get him out of the cuffs. Gloria waits for T-Dog to uncuff the man but unfortunately, she watches him as he fumbles and drops the key straight into a drain. T-Dog looks apologetically at Merle who screams at him, saying he did it on purpose. He starts to back out and run to the door of the stairway. 

“We gotta go!” T-Dog says as he calls out to Gloria to follow him out the door.

She looks back at Merle who is still screaming helplessly for them to not leave him behind. Gloria thinks back to Daryl and how he cares for his brother regardless of how much of an asshole he is. She realizes that if they leave him behind, he’ll be coming to the walker infested city alone to come back for him. 

“T-Dog, leave me here, go!” Gloria shouts as she ushered T-Dog out the door.

“Are you crazy?! You know I can’t do that!” T-Dog shouts back, his eyes wide at her instruction.

“You don’t have any time! Go! Daryl and Glenn are gonna come back for us, tell them to bring something to cut the chains! Hurry up and go before they leave you behind too!” Gloria gives him one last shove before he reluctantly shuts the door behind him. 

Gloria grabs a chain and chains up the doors from her side so that no walker can get in. After she locked the door, she makes her way back to Merle who hasn’t stopped shouting. When he realizes that Gloria is still on the roof with him, he stops shouting and eyes her, confused.

“Wha- why are ya still here? Thought ya hated me.” Merle questions her.

“Oh I do hate you, trust me. But do you want your brother coming here to get you alone? I’m his insurance that he has backup.” Gloria responds as she sits down along the ledge of the building, taking a water bottle out of her bag and drinks from it as she waits for their rescue team. 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note: This IS a Character Insert Series Rewrite so this WILL contain spoilers for the show. ALL Major Character deaths will not be changed!
> 
> I already have a large portion of this series posted on Tumblr and decided to post it here as well! I'll be posting a chapter every day until I'm caught up with what I have on Tumblr! Any comments are always appreciated!

A blaring car alarm can be heard all throughout the outskirts of Atlanta as Glenn makes his way back to the quarry camp. He excitedly drives his new red car back as a truck is following shortly behind him. The others left at the camp all gather to see what the alarm is and Glenn gets out of the car. He’s greeted by an annoyed Shane who shouts above the alarm to turn it off. 

“I don’t know how!” Glenn responds, also in a shout. 

Without another word, a member of their camp, Jim, pops open the hood of the car and cuts a wire of the car, silencing the alarm. Shane marches up to Glenn, shaking his head.

“Are you crazy, driving this thing back up here? This alarm could have attracted walkers from miles and you brought them straight back to us!” Shane lectures. 

Glenn cowers, “Sorry… but we really had no choice, we were surrounded and needed a distraction out of the city.” 

“If you were surrounded, how’d you get out?” Jim asks, curious.

“New guy.” Glenn simply answers.

As if on cue, the truck pulls up behind Glenn’s car and they file out of the truck. Andrea happily reuniting with Amy, and Morales with his own family. Jacqui watches with a smile on her face as she walks back to the camp, while T-Dog stands by the truck, not sure how to face Glenn. Rick gets out of the truck and towards the others.

“Dad… Dad!” Carl shouts as he recognizes his father and runs up to him, jumping into his arms. 

The others watch on as Lori and Carl are reunited with their long lost husband and father. Shane has a look of bewildered and hurt on his face compared to everyone else. Glenn looks around for Gloria and frowns when he doesn’t see her. He makes his way to the back of the truck.

“Gloria?” he calls out to her, expecting her to for some reason still be in the truck, he walks back to the camp when he doesn’t find her, “hey, has anyone seen my sister?”

Rick, Morales, Jacqui, and Andrea’s faces all change at his question, T-Dog had already told them what had happened back in the truck. 

“She’s back on the roof… with Merle.” T-Dog says, looking down in shame and regret. 

Glenn spins to look at him, “What? Y-you can’t be serious… come on, stop playing T’.” 

“I’m not… she insisted on stayin’… I’m sorry man.” T-Dog admits, still unable to look up at his friend.

Glenn stumbles backwards, his face drained of blood at the news, “Y-you… left her? You **left** her?! How could you do that?! What the hell?! We are going back there, **right** now, and we’re getting her back.” 

He opens the door to his red car and is about to get in when Rick holds him back, “we can’t let you do that, Glenn.” 

Glenn angrily shoves him off, “Why the hell not?! That’s my sister we left back there! You got your family back, I gotta go back and get mine!” 

“Glenn, calm down.” Shane holds his hands out in front of him. 

“Do **not** tell me to calm down.” Glenn seethes in anger. 

Rick sighs, “look, I’m not saying we don’t go back to get her, but right now is not the time. With all the commotion we caused back there, with all that noise, it’s a suicide mission if we go back now.” 

“Rick’s right, if what you said about being surrounded is true, we’ll have to wait it out for a few hours at least before any of us go back out there to the city.” Shane says, backing up Rick.

T-Dog looks at Glenn finally and goes up to him, “I’m sorry, brother… I didn’t want to leave her back there, but she told me to get you back there with Daryl, bring back something to cut the cuffs because I’m an idiot and dropped the damn keys… I’m sorry.”

Glenn sighs in frustration and worry, tears of fear for Gloria’s life forming in his eyes, “We can’t go now, we can’t leave at night, what the hell do you want me to do?! Wait until morning to go get her?! That’s my baby sister!” Glenn yells, his hands holding his head. 

Shane goes up to Glenn and carefully puts his hand on his back, “Glenn, I know you’re worried about Gloria, but you know more than any of us how strong a woman she is, T-Dog said she’ll be there waiting for you and she will.” 

“I also locked the door from the inside with a padlock, the walkers can’t get to her.” T-Dog adds, hoping that it would prove to be some kind of comfort to Glenn.

Glenn lets out a deep breath as he tries to calm himself down, “Where’s Daryl?”

“He went out hunting, I heard that he might not come back until tomorrow morning.” Amy informs.

He groans in frustration at the news, “Are you serious?! Are we really going to wait for Daryl to come back to go get her?!”

“It’s what your sister wanted man…” T-Dog insists, “guess she didn’t want him to go alone to get Merle, that might be why she stayed.”

Glenn ponders, “Yeah… sounds exactly like her… We’re going to get them first thing in the morning when Daryl gets back.”

—

It’s already been a day that Gloria had been stuck on the roof with Merle. She has her back pressed on the ledge of the building, her hands covering her ears as Merle yaps away about his life story. Her eyes closed, trying to think of anything to distract her from the man who never seems to shut up. Gloria silently regrets having set up a makeshift shelter for Merle from pipes and a blanket she keeps in her bag, hoping to keep him protected from the heat of the harsh sun; she can’t have him delirious or suffering from heatstroke in case anything happens. Fortunately, Merle quiets down for a while as he had run out of his train of thought. Gloria sighs at this silence, she moves her hands from covering her ears. 

“Hey, you.” Merle calls out to her.

Rolling her eyes, she looks over at Merle, “What?” 

“Why’d ya stay?” he asks, seeming almost thankful she did. 

“Daryl is gonna come for your annoying ass but it’s dangerous for him to come alone. So I took it upon myself to force Glenn into coming back for us, it’s better they come together rather than Daryl coming alone.” Gloria explains, she does feel bad for making Glenn come back for her, but she also knows that Glenn has come to the city countless times whereas Daryl hasn’t stepped into the city once ever since the world ended, having Glenn guide him was his best shot of finding them quickly. 

Merle chuckles at her answer, “Sacrificing your brother for me, tha’s sweet.” 

“Trust me, I am not sacrificing anything for you. Daryl has a better chance of getting here safely with Glenn anyway, he has all the quickest routes plotted out, I just happened to make it so that he has to come help.” Gloria shrugs. 

Another short-lived moment of silence goes by between the two, groans of walkers can he heard echoing in the streets below. Gloria leans back, her head hitting the ledge gently as she rests there with her eyes closed.

“Ya wanna hear a story from when I was servin’ in juvie?” Merle drawls out. 

Not opening her eyes, Gloria responds, “You must really love the sound of your own voice… you never shut up for more than five mintues.” 

Merle scoffs at her remark but continues on with telling his story. He goes on and on for at least five minutes, getting louder as the story gets more elaborate and exaggerated. His storytime is interrupted by a loud banging on the door. Gloria opens her eyes at the sound and they both look at the entrance of the stairway, both of them hoping that it’s Glenn and Daryl coming to their rescue. Their hope is shattered when the door bursts open, only held by the chains and padlock Gloria and T-Dog had set up, and walkers try to claw their way onto the roof. 

“Shit!” Gloria gets up and sees that the chains don’t look like they’re going to hold up very long. 

Merle is frantically shouting and cursing loudly, trying to yank at the handcuffs, thinking that would actually do something. Gloria looks around and sees a toolbox with a hacksaw, she runs to it and grabs the hacksaw then tosses it over to Merle.

“Shut up and start cutting the chains!’ Gloria shouts at him.

She then dashes towards the door and tackles it, attempting to close the door. Gloria uses all her weight to push against the door but with the amount of walkers on the other side, she is easily overpowered. She spots a broken pipe on the ground and reaches for it, her body still leaning on the door trying to close it. Once she grabs the pipe, Gloria starts to kill off the walkers, stabbing and bashing at all of them peering through the door until she is able to push the door closed. Panting, she continues to lean on the door when Merle makes his way over to her. 

Gloria looks over to him and her eyes widen in horror at the blood all over his clothing and a stump where his right hand is supposed to be, “Merle… what the hell did you do…”

“Ya gave me the hacksaw… what’d ya expect me to do wit’ it?” Merle says, his breath panting and face pale. 

“I told you to cut the chains, not your damn hand!” Gloria sighs in frustration, “we gotta get you outta here, find something to stop the bleeding otherwise you’re gonna bleed out.” 

With the metal pipe in hand, Gloria goes to where she was sitting previously and grabs her backpack then goes to retrieve the blanket she’d made the makeshift shelter with and hands it to Merle as a temporary bandage. He winces as he wraps his stump with the blanket and looks to Gloria who’s waiting for him to be ready. He nods and then Gloria opens the door, ready for any walker that approaches. Gloria helps Merle as he stumbles down the stairs and they start rummaging the entire store for any bandages or gauze to stop his bleeding. They arrive at a kitchen and Gloria continues to rummage through cupboards and drawers.

“What the fuck, do they have no first aid or medical kits in this damn place?!” Gloria exclaims, annoyed that they haven’t found anything to help stop Merle’s bleeding. 

“No medical or first aid kits… but they got somethin’ that’ll do the trick.” Merle says from behind her.

Gloria turns around and sees Merle looking at a stove burner. She looks at him, shocked at what he’s insinuating and walks up to him. 

“I… I can try to help you cauterize your wound… but are you sure? It’s gonna hurt like hell.” Gloria grimaces just at the thought of it.

Pursing his lips together, he nods, “I’m all for pain!” 

Gloria lets out a breath and turns on the stove, then places an iron steak weight onto the flames. She glances at Merle who is just staring at the heating metal, fear evident in his eyes no matter how hard he tries to hide it. Gloria looks around and grabs a towel, folding it into four and holding it up to Merle’s mouth.

“Bite this, it’ll keep you from screaming out loud and calling walkers in here to kill us.” Gloria says, letting him play it off that he’s doing it for her and not that he’s afraid of the pain.

Merle bites onto the towel and the two wait a little longer for the metal to be hot enough. Once Gloria deems it ready, she holds out her hand and waits for Merle to give her his arm. Gently holding on his forearm, she guides it to the piping hot iron steak weight and gives him a look to make sure he’s ready for the pain. Merle nods, giving Gloria the cue to hold his stump to the metal. He wreathes and seethes in pain, biting down hard into the towel. Gloria’s hold on Merle’s arm is gentle but firm, she holds his arm in place for a few more moments, counting down the seconds she had learned back in school about how long it took to properly cauterize a wound. She slowly moves his arm away from the metal and lets go of him completely. 

“Are you alright?” Gloria looks at him, concerned at how pale he is.

Merle scoffs and waves his only hand at her, “never been better.”

Seeing that he’s still able to joke around, she concludes that he’s not dying any time soon. She goes around the kitchen to find more towels to wrap up Merle’s now cauterized stump to prevent it from getting an infection before they get back to their camp. Merle wanders around the kitchen and ponders to himself as he stares out a window. He looks back to Gloria who had just opened a storage cabinet that was completely empty. 

“Ya find anythin’ yet?” Merle says, slowly walking closer to her.

Gloria shakes her head, her back facing Merle, “No, there is literally nothing in here, everything’s empty.” 

“’s that so…” Merle reaches Gloria and then shoves her into the cabinet.

“What the fuck?!” Gloria yelps.

Merle quickly closes the cabinet doors and locks her inside. Gloria bangs on the inside of the cabinet for him to let her out.

“No can do, sweetheart. With ya followin’ me out there, ya gon’ get me killed. I’m better off alone, no hard feelin’s though, ya helped a lot.” Merle says as he chains up the outside of the cabinet, so that nothing can get in nor out of it.

“Merle, you son of a bitch, let me out of here right now!” Gloria angrily continues to bang on the cabinet doors.

“Hey hey hey! Relax! Ya said yaself, my brother and yers are gonna come back to get ya, ya’ll be fine!” Merle says as he makes his way to the window he had been looking out of. 

“Merle! Open this door or I am going to-” the sound of glass shattering interrupts Gloria’s angry rant, “Merle? Merle!” 


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note: This IS a Character Insert Series Rewrite so this WILL contain spoilers for the show. ALL Major Character deaths will not be changed!
> 
> I already have a large portion of this series posted on Tumblr and decided to post it here as well! I'll be posting a chapter every day until I'm caught up with what I have on Tumblr! Any comments are always appreciated!

It feels as if hours had passed since Merle had left Gloria trapped in the cabinet. She’s been banging on the door constantly, hoping Glenn or Daryl are somewhere in the building and hear it. Gloria slumps down, now sitting with her knees pulled against her chest in the small space, she sighs. 

“Merle you asshole… I’m gonna break your arm the next time I see you… selfish prick…” Gloria curses under her breath. 

She attempts to push open the cabinet door but to her expectations, all she hears are the chains on the outside rattling. Gloria groans, frustrated and not knowing what to do. Suddenly, she hears voices from outside. She listens intently to hear the voices better, making sure they aren’t voices of strangers before calling out for help.

“Merle! Ya in here?! Merle!” 

Daryl.

“Gloria!”

Glenn!

Gloria starts to hit and bang on the cabinet door furiously, “In here! Hey! Daryl! Glenn! I’m in here!” 

She continues to rattle the chains, hitting the door until she hears the chains being taken off of the door. The doors of the cabinet open and Gloria shields her eyes from the brightness coming in from the windows. Once her vision adjusts to the light, she looks up and sees Glenn and Daryl looking down at her. 

“Glenn!” Gloria gets up with the help of her brother and she hugs him tightly.

“Oh thank god, you’re okay,” Glenn lets out a huge sigh of relief as he tightly hugs her back, his hand cradling her head. 

“Hey, where’s Merle?” Daryl asks Gloria as she lets go of Glenn. 

Gloria sighs, “I don’t know.”

“The hell ya mean ya don’ know?! The hell is he?!” Daryl pulls out something from his pocket, waving it around angrily as he speaks, “I find his damn hand out on the roof and now ya tellin’ me tha’ ya don’ know where he is?!” 

“Hey, will you just listen to me before going off?!” Gloria shouts back at Daryl.

“Alright, everyone just calm down.” Rick says, Gloria looks in his direction and finally realizes that he and T-Dog were in the room as well, “Gloria, why don’t you tell us what happened.”

“Well, we **were** waiting for you guys back on the roof, but the chains broke with all the weight of the walkers on the door, I had to try and to block them off so I threw a hacksaw to Merle-” she gets cut off by Daryl.

“Ya told him to cut off his own hand?!” Daryl shouts, angry.

“I told him to cut the damn chains! How the hell was I supposed to know that he wouldn’t listen and be stupid enough to cut off his own hand?!” Gloria shouts back in her own defense and takes a few breaths to calm down before telling the rest of the story, “when I saw what he did, I knew we couldn’t stay up there anymore, we didn’t know when you guys would come get us, and if you took too long, he would have bled out. So we tried to find anything to stop his bleeding, and eventually… did that.” 

Gloria gestures over to the stove with the iron steak weight that now had Merle’s brunt skin crusted on it. The four men look at the bloody scene in shock and turn back to Gloria. 

“You did that?” Rick questioned, his face shocked, “you cauterized his wound with a steak weight?”

Gloria shrugs, “I know it wasn’t the most sanitary, but it was the only thing we could find. So after I did that, I tried to look for more towels to wrap his wound. And then he pushed me and locked me up in this damn cabinet. I heard glass shattering right before he left so I’m guessing he went out the windows.”

Daryl goes over to the windows and nods, “Yeah… it’s shattered and you can still see some blood… fuck..”

Gloria looks at Daryl with sympathetic eyes and goes up to him, “I’m sorry, Daryl. Truly, I am. The least I can tell you is that your brother is still alive out there somewhere, missing a hand yeah, but still alive.”

Daryl scoffs at her last words and looks at her, “O’ course he is, nobody can kill Merle but Merle.”

“What do you say we keep looking for him out on the streets?” Gloria suggests. 

“Yeah, he should still be out there, I bet I can still track him.” Daryl says, readying his crossbow and heading to the door.

“Woah woah wait, look I feel for you man, I do, he’s blood, family, I get it. But you can’t expect me, all of us to go out there without any protection, at least let us go get those guns first, then we can start lookin’ for your brother.” T-Dog quickly suggests.

“Guns?” Gloria questions, looking to Glenn.

“When Rick was attacked by the herd, he had a bag full of guns with him, he left them there when I got him out of that mess and they should still be there.” Glenn explains.

“Fine, we’ll get yer damn guns, find Merle an’ get the hell outta here.” Daryl harshly agrees. 

The group devises a plan of how they quickly can retrieve the guns; Glenn, being the fastest, goes out with Daryl as his back up and grabs the bag while the other three cover another alleyway where Daryl and Glenn will meet them once they have the bag. Understanding the plan, the group heads out. Gloria, Rick, and T-Dog make it to their alleyway and wait for Glenn and Daryl while looking out for any walkers. 

“Help! Help!”

The three of them look at one another once they hear the cry for help and they rush over to the direction of the voice. They reach the alleyway Daryl and Glenn were supposed to be and find Daryl about to pounce on a teenager. Rick and T-Dog quickly pull him away from the scared boy. Gloria looks around, seeing the bag of guns on the ground but frowns when she doesn’t see any sign of Glenn.

“Where’s Glenn?” Gloria turns to Daryl.

“The kids friends jumped me and took him.” Daryl tells her, frustrated and angry.

Gloria looks at the teenager and seethes with anger, she readies herself to pounce on him when Rick holds her back, “Easy, we can’t make any more noise, there’s walkers all over the place, we have to keep quiet.”

Still glaring at the teenager, she shrugs Rick off of her and stays as composed as she can. Rick grabs the bag of guns as well as a sheriffs hat from off the ground and instructs Daryl and T-Dog to take the teenager with them. He proceeds to climb up the ladder of the building beside them to the roof and the others proceed to follow. They find an office room of some sort and Rick and Daryl start to interrogate the teenager who’s name turns out to be Miguel. 

“I ain’t telling you anything.” he tries to put up a strong front. 

This angers Daryl as he huffs and is about to beat him up but Gloria quickly intervenes, holding Daryl’s arm back from throwing a punch.

“Daryl, stop. Let me try.” Gloria lets go of his arm and pulls a chair up to sit right in front of Miguel, “Listen, I don’t know who you are and I honestly don’t care. What I do care about is my brother, and your people took him from me, and I just want to get him back. He’s the only family I have left, so can you help me get him back?” 

Miguel looks at her and then looks down, a look of guilt on his face as he nods, “alright, I’ll help you. I’ll take you to G.” 

“G?” Rick questions.

“Guillermo, he runs the place.” Miguel explains.

Gloria smiles softly at him and gets up from her seat, and looks at Daryl, “see? Sometimes violence isn’t the only way.” 

Daryl rolls his eyes, strapping his crossbow in place, “ya act like ya weren’ ready to pounce his ass in the alley.” 

Gloria chuckles and puts on her backpack, ready to head out to get Glenn when Rick stops her, “Gloria, I need you to stay here.”

“What?” Gloria furrows her brows, “Why? Aren’t we going to get Glenn?”

“We are, but it’s too dangerous to take the bag full of guns with us, and we can’t leave them here unattended. You’re our best choice, now can you do that for me?” Rick explains, looking at her with sincere eyes.

Gloria sighs and nods, “Fine… I’ll stay here. You better bring my brother back.” 

Rick nods to her as a silent promise then he heads out with Daryl and T-Dog holding onto Miguel. Gloria closes and locks the door to the office and sits down on the desk with the bag of guns. She waits patiently for the others to come back and soon she hears a knock on the door, then Rick’s voice telling her to open up. Quickly, Gloria goes to open the door expectantly but to her dismay and disappointment, she doesn’t see Glenn.

“What was the last thing I said when you guys left? Where the hell is Glenn?!” Gloria exclaims, annoyed and frustrated; how many times does she need to get separated from her brother.

“Assholes had him up on a roof, threatening to throw him down and kill him. They wan’ to exchange him with the kid and the bag o’ guns.” Daryl tells her.

“Is that even a question?” Gloria says, looking to Rick, “that’s my brother.”

Rick doesn’t respond verbally, instead he starts to load up his shotgun. T-Dog, Daryl, Miguel and Gloria all watch as he does so, wondering what his plan is.

“Guillermo gave us two options,” Rick starts, “come back with the guns and Miguel, or come back locked and loaded. I’m choosing the second. I’m not expecting to come out of this unscathed, hell I’m not even expecting to make it out alive, so if you want to leave, head back to the camp, be my guest the choice is yours, but I owe Glenn my life, I ain’t walking away from him.”

Hearing this, Gloria doesn’t hesitate and unzips the bag of guns on the table and takes out a shotgun herself, “count me in.” she cocks the gun.

“Do ya even know how to shoot that thing?” Daryl asks, staring at her doubtedly. 

“Nope,” she turns to look at him, “but how hard can it be? Aim and shoot, done.” 

Rick chuckles at her, “that’s not exactly how it works.”

T-Dog and Daryl start to load up their weapons and soon they make their way back to Guillermo’s headquarters, a warehouse. Once there, Rick cuts the ties off of Miguel and frees him.

“Here’s your boy, now give us ours.” Rick orders.

Guillermo turns his attention to one of his henchmen, “Chop up the boy and feed him to our dogs.”

Enraged at his words, Gloria is about to hold her gun up straight to Guillermo’s head when Daryl lowers his own and holds her back, “hey, calm down, let Rick handle this.” he whispers harshly into her ear.

Rick glances back at the two, making sure Daryl has Gloria’s situation handled, he turns attention back towards Guillermo, “you said come locked and loaded, we’re here.”

Everyone inside the warehouse raises their guns at Rick’s words. There is an intense staredown between Rick and Guillermo, only to be dissolved when an elderly woman calls out to someone named Felipe. She comes out to the middle of the crowd and notices Rick in his sheriff’s outfit.

“Oh no, please don’t take Felipe away, he’s a good boy.” the elderly woman pleads.

“I won’t take him away, I’m just here to take back one of ours.” Rick says softly to the woman.

The elderly woman’s brows furrow, “The Asian boy?” 

Rick nods and the elderly woman reaches out for his hand and leads him into the back. Gloria, Daryl and T-Dog look at one another, trying to figure out the situation but their guns still held up just in case. After a short while, Rick reappears from the back with Glenn and seemingly half the bag of guns they’d originally had. 

“Those weren’t bad people, they’d taken in people from an old folks home and were only trying to protect their own.” Rick explains as he leads the group out of the warehouse. 

“Did ya really need to give them half our guns?” Daryl asks, annoyed.

“They needed them just as much as we do.” Rick says simply.

Gloria hits Glenn on the arm as she walks along his side, “you alright, you dumbass?”

Glenn laughs at his sister’s words of ‘endearment’, “Yeah, I don’t think they were ever actually going to hurt me.”

The group make it back to the spot where the van was supposed to be, only to see that it had already been taken. 

“Merle, ‘t has to be him.” Daryl mutters and sighs.

“Well, now what do we do?” T-Dog exclaims, annoyed at how things were going so badly for them today.

“We better start heading back to camp, by the time we get back it’s gonna be dark.” Glenn points out. 

The group collectively lets out a sigh, knowing it’s going to be a long way back on foot. Without saying another word, the five of them start walking back to the quarry camp.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note: This IS a Character Insert Series Rewrite so this WILL contain spoilers for the show. ALL Major Character deaths will not be changed!
> 
> I already have a large portion of this series posted on Tumblr and decided to post it here as well! I'll be posting a chapter every day until I'm caught up with what I have on Tumblr! Any comments are always appreciated!

As Glenn had predicted, by the time the four of them had reached the quarry, it was already dark. Tired and weary from the long walk, they all continued to hike up the trail to finally get back to their camp. Screams and cries stop the group in their steps as they looked towards one another then bolt towards the camp, realizing that the sounds were emitting from their home. Glenn, Daryl, T-Dog and Rick ready their shotguns and rush to save the camp. Gloria, who had returned the gun back into the bag as she didn’t know how to shoot one, pulled out the kitchen knife she had in her bag and followed the others. Slashing and shooting every walker they come across, the camp has already started to become littered with bodies of walkers as well as their own people. 

“Lori! Carl!” Rick screams out, looking for his family as he shoots any walker in sight.

He rushes over to them, Shane by his side, protecting the mother and son who are crying out of fear in each other’s arms. Gloria looks around and sees Carol holding Sophia tightly, both of them crying as they look around in fear. She rushes over to them as she sees a walker heading their way, tackling it to the ground before it can get to them. Gloria plunges the knife into the walker without any hesitation. 

“Gloria! Watch out!” Carol screams, causing Gloria to look behind her.

A walker is just behind her about to grab at her. Being quick, Gloria grabs hold of her knife and yanks it out of the first walker’s skull and stabs the walker that snuck up behind her in the side of the head, killing it instantly as it drops to the ground. Panting, Gloria looks around the camp and sees that the group had taken care of the walkers that had invaded. Whimpering and crying echo throughout the camp. She looks down and tries to pull out her knife from the walker’s head but groans as it ends up breaking. 

“How wonderful…” she says sarcastically, looking at the handle of the knife, she then gets up and goes over to Carol and Sophia, “hey, are you two okay?”

Sophia is still crying into her mother’s shirt as Carol wipes her own tears away but nods, “Yeah, we’re okay. Thank you, Gloria. You saved us.”

Gloria puts her hand on Carol’s arm and gives a comforting squeeze and forces a soft smile on her face, “it’ll be okay, bring Sophia over to Lori and the others.” 

Carol nods and heads over to the RV where Lori is holding Carl close to her as Rick and Shane ensure that they’re not hurt. Gloria wanders around as she looks for Glenn, subconsciously still holding onto the broken knife handle. 

“Ya brought a kitchen knife? Ya serious?” Daryl calls out to her. 

Gloria looks over to Daryl who’s standing by his truck, judging her by her weapon of choice, “Well… at least it did the job…” she says, slightly embarrassed, then she throws the handle away. 

Daryl rolls his eyes then makes his way to help with the bodies, Gloria follows him silently when she glances over to the RV and sees Andrea sitting by what looks to be Amy’s bloody body. Tears well up in Gloria’s eyes as she watches the heartbreaking scene of Andrea mourning her younger sister. Unable to take it, she tears her eyes away and focuses on helping with taking care of the bodies. After hours of burying the bodies of their people and burning the walkers, Gloria stands by Daryl’s truck as she wipes her hands of blood with a rag as Daryl comes up to the truck, placing a shovel into the back. She hands the rag over to Daryl for him to do the same.

“Thanks.” Daryl mutters as he takes the rag from her. 

“You know, it’s a good thing Merle wasn’t here to see this shit show.” Gloria says with a sigh, looking at the ground; she’d actually been starting to feel guilty about Merle running off, she was in charge of keeping him in check.

Daryl scoffs at her words but then notices that she wasn’t smiling, “Wha’s wrong?”

Gloria looks at him and it’s her turn to scoff, “You mean other than the fact that nearly half our group is dead?” 

Daryl looks down at that and then Gloria starts to walk off to check up on Carol and Sophia when Daryl grabs hold of her arm, pulling her back, “hol’ up a sec’.” he says as he lets go of her arm.

Gloria perks up an eyebrow as she watches him get something from his truck, “here.”

He holds out a set of sheathed hunting daggers and Gloria hesitantly takes them, “what are these for?”

“They’ll work better in a fight than yer kitchen knives.” Daryl shrugs.

Chuckling, Gloria looks down at them and smiles softly, “thanks.” she looks back up at him and nods once before attaching the blades to her belt and heading off to find Carol and Sophia. 

“Jim’s been bit!” Jacqui exclaims, causing everyone to stop what they’re doing and turn their attention to her and Jim.

Jim looks around at the group, looking pale and drenched in sweat, and shakes his head, “No, no, I’m fine. It’s nothing.”

Shane and Rick rush over to him as Daryl and T-Dog aren’t far behind. The two cops urge him to show them the bite and they sigh as Jim reluctantly lifts his shirt, showing them the unmistakable walker bite on his torso. They back away from Jim and give him space as he’s very obviously scared and distressed about the situation. They let him sit by the RV as the rest of the group discuss what they should do with him. Being straight forward, Daryl suggests to outright kill him before he turns along with Amy. There is a silence at his suggestion as they all know that Daryl is right, even if they don’t like it.

“We can try for the C.D.C.” Rick finally speaks up, “I hear they were working on a cure.” 

Shane scoffs and shakes his head, “that’s a stretch man, and you know it. We don’t even know if it’s still up and running.” 

“And what if it is? We can take our chances there and save Jim and anyone else.” Rick argues, wanting to fight for the lives of the group.

“And if it isn’t? We’re just going to go all the way there for nothing. I say we go to Fort Benning where we’d all have a better chance, they’d have an army camp set up and everything, we’d be safer there, plus it’s closer than the C.D.C.” Shane says, eyeing his best friend.

“It may be closer, but we also can’t guarantee that it’s still up and running. The C.D.C. is our best chance,” Rick glances over at Jim, “and it’s Jim’s only chance.”

The group stays silent at that and Shane sighs, accepting that Rick is right. Daryl looks over at Jim and eyes him, he looks around and makes his way over to him, pickaxe in hand when Gloria grabs his arm. He looks over at her and she gives him a warning look as she shakes her head, silently telling him to stop what he’s about to do. Daryl huffs and yanks his arm from her grasp but doesn’t continue on to take out Jim. Gloria sighs as she watches Daryl walk off to pierce the skulls of the rest of the dead bodies with the pickaxe. 

The group finally come to an agreement to go to the C.D.C. to try and find an answer to the outbreak as well as a cure for Jim. Andrea had to put down Amy’s walker as she reanimated and they buried her body as well. Rick and Shane had helped Jim into the RV, hoping the room in the vehicle would make him feel more comfortable given his situation. The rest of the group was packing up their belongings, preparing for the trip. 

“Hey Carol,” Gloria calls out softly as she approaches Carol and Sophia, “how are you doing?”

Carol looks up at her and forces a smile on her face, “we’ll be okay, thank you for always caring and looking out for us.” 

Gloria smiles softly and puts her hand on Carol’s shoulder, “if you ever need someone to talk to, just know that I’m here for you.” 

Carol nods and pulls Gloria in for a hug, whispering her thanks in her ear. Gloria smiles and pats Sophia’s head when she pulls away from Carol, telling the little girl to take care of her mom to which Sophia smiles and nods, promising that she will. 

Once the bodies of the camp’s fallen have been buried, the group performs a mass funeral for them. Tears and silent cries fill the atmosphere throughout the camp. After they’ve all said their goodbyes to the dead, they all start loading up into their vehicles. Morales and his family have decided to not join them on their trip to the C.D.C. as they have family elsewhere and want to join them. 

“Gloria,” Dale calls out to her from the door to the RV.

Gloria’s just about to get into the car with Glenn when she hears Dale calling for her, she gestures to Glenn who’s already in the car to wait a bit as she goes over to him, “everything okay?”

“Yeah, I was just thinking…” Dale starts, “you’re the only one with any medical background among us, I was hoping that you could stay with Jim in the RV.” 

Gloria ponders then nods, “it’ll be just like when I was a nurse.” 

Dale smiles at her gratefully and pats her arm in gratitude, he then goes back in to start the RV. Gloria heads back to Glenn’s car and tells him that she’s riding in the RV because she needs to take care of Jim. 

“You sure?” Glenn asks, worry coating his voice.

Gloria nods, “Yeah, I’ll be fine, won’t be like anything I haven’t seen when I was working in the hospital.” 

Her brother purses his lips and ponders a bit, “Alright… but be careful, let Dale know if anything happens to Jim, okay?”

She smiles reassuringly and nods, then heads off to the RV. The group finally departs off to the C.D.C. Jim continuously groans and whimpers in pain throughout the ride, Gloria keeps trying to talk to Jim, doing everything she can to distract him from the pain. 

“Oh shoot.” Dale exclaims as the RV comes to a stop.

Gloria looks over to him, “what’s wrong?” 

“The radiator hose… I think it burst again.” Dale sighs, turning off the engine and getting out of the RV to check on it.

Rick comes into the RV shortly after Dale had gotten out, “Hey, how’s he doing?” 

Gloria sighs, “he’s in a lot of pain…”

“My bones feel like glass… every bump… God, everything hurts…” Jim groans, Gloria and Rick looking at him sympathetically, “Please… I don’t want to continue on like this anymore. Just leave me on the side of the road.”

Gloria looks to Rick as if he has all the answers, he kneels down beside the bed Jim is lying on, “Is that what you want?” 

Jim nods and sighs, “Please… I want to be with my family…”

Rick sighs then looks to Gloria, “wha-what do the doctors do… when the patient or their family don’t want to carry on with the treatment…?” he was looking to Gloria for a moral compass, wanting to know if it’s right to go with Jim’s wishes even if it meant he would die.

“They… they’d respect the patient’s wishes…” Gloria says, looking down, a tear rolling down her cheek.

Taking a deep breath, Rick looks at Jim reassuringly and nods, “then we shall respect your wishes.”

Rick had Shane help him carry Jim out of the RV, letting him sit against a tree. The group say their tearful goodbyes to Jim and regretfully, resume their trip to the C.D.C. as Shane and T-Dog had found a replacement radiator hose down the road. Gloria got into Glenn’s car this time instead of the RV, trying to get her mind off Jim. She was looking out the window as she tried to stop her tears. 

“Hey, you okay?” Glenn asks, glancing over at her worriedly from the driver’s seat.

Gloria sniffles and nods, “Yeah… I’ll be fine. Comes with the job.” she scoffs at her own words. 

Glenn sighs as he focuses back on the road. The siblings drive alongside the other vehicles in silence for what seems to be hours. The RV is first to stop, halting the others from continuing but there is no need to continue further as the group steps out of their respective vehicles, they ogle at the scene in front of them. 

Barricades and fences are set up at the perimeter of a large glass building. Bodies littered everywhere, some civilians, some military. No sign of life present anywhere in the vicinity of the area. A large blue sign sitting just outside of the large glass building reads ‘C.D.C.’, letting any hope that the group was at the wrong place slide out from under them. 

“Come on,” Rick urges the others to keep going as he starts to head for the building. 

The others follow him to the building where they are greeted by giant metal doors. Shane and Lori start to try and convince Rick that this is a dead end and that there is no one inside but Rick is insistent on continuing to try. He looks up at the doors again and catches a glimpse of the camera moving.

“The camera, it moved!” Rick exclaims, hope in his voice.

“You’re just seeing things, brother, there’s no one in there!” Shane yells. 

The commotion from Shane and Rick’s argument attract nearby walkers to the group. Carl starts to cry in fear and Lori yells at her husband that they need to get out of here immediately. Shane starts to drag Rick away from the building as Rick keeps trying to convince whoever is inside, if anyone is, to let them in.

“You’re killing us! **You’re killing us!** ” Rick yells, his voice cracking in desperation. 

As if those were the magic words, the giant metal doors start to open. Bright lights from inside the building pours out, temporarily blinding the group as they watched in shock and awe. Maybe there was hope for their group after all. 


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note: This IS a Character Insert Series Rewrite so this WILL contain spoilers for the show. ALL Major Character deaths will not be changed!
> 
> I already have a large portion of this series posted on Tumblr and decided to post it here as well! I'll be posting a chapter every day until I'm caught up with what I have on Tumblr! Any comments are always appreciated!

The giant metal doors to the CDC started to open for the group to enter. Rick looks around to his family and the others with a grin before turning around and leading everyone inside. The group follows Rick hesitantly and wary of their surroundings, the kids looking around in curiosity and awe as if they’re on a field trip. 

“Who are you people?” a man in a white lab coat asks them, looking at them warily. 

“Survivors.” Rick answers simply.

“What do you want?” the man questions again, looking at everyone filing into the large room.

“A chance.” Rick replies, eyeing the man. 

“That’s asking an awful lot these days.” he spots Carl and Sophia then his features soften, “you’ll each need to do a blood test, that’s your price of admission.”

Rick nods, “we can do that.” 

The man allows the group to enter, introducing himself as Dr. Jenner, the only person in the entire C.D.C. facility. He explains that everyone else either left for home or committed suicide, ‘opted out’ as he put it. He answers the questions the group has for him and looks over to Carl when he voices that he’s starving.

“You know what little man, you’re all free to help yourselves to the food storage just down the hallway.” Dr. Jenner smiles at him as the boy gleems happily. 

The others take Dr. Jenner’s offer gratefully, feasting and drinking to their hearts’ content. Everyone but Gloria is happily eating and conversing amongst themselves, although she does pay attention to the conversations and Daryl trying to get Glenn drunk. 

“You better not throw up on me.” Gloria says as she pushes him away from her, Glenn always gets clingy when he drinks.

“My baby sister!” Glenn grins as he wraps his arms around Gloria, slurring his words and giggles to himself.

She rolls her eyes and playfully glares at Daryl, “see what you caused?”

Daryl laughs and takes another swig of the large whiskey bottle in his hand. The others laugh, amused at Glenn’s drunken state and Gloria’s failed attempts to get him off of her. As quickly as it started, the mood is killed when Shane continuously questions Dr. Jenner about whether there even is a cure. 

“Ugh, you are **such** a buzzkill.” Glenn groans, now fully leaning on Gloria for support. 

“Alright, time for bed, let’s go.” Gloria says as she gets up with Glenn’s arm around her shoulders, supporting him as he isn’t able to even stand up properly. 

The rest of the group retreats to wash up and get ready for the night as well. Gloria escorts Glenn to the washrooms where Glenn ends up vomiting in one of the toilets. She pats his back, letting him relieve himself of the alcohol in his system. Once he signals to her that he’s better, Gloria wipes his face with a wet towel, making sure there is no residue on him. She carries him back to the room he had claimed earlier and tucks him into bed where he quickly falls asleep. 

“You are so gonna regret this tomorrow.” Gloria chuckles as she takes one last look at her brother, then she leaves to wash up herself.

After Gloria is freshly cleaned up, she retreats to her own claimed room and sits down on the bed, letting out a deep sigh. Being alone, she lets her mind wander back to the past few days, particularly what happened back on the rooftop with Merle. The guilt had been consuming her the more she thought about it. She shouldn’t have ever given him the hacksaw, what was she thinking? It would have never cut through those chains, and knowing how crazy a guy Merle is, she should have seen something like that coming. Now he was missing because of her, Daryl was missing his brother because of her. The sound of the door opening snaps Gloria out of her thoughts as she looks over to the door and sees Daryl peering in, a bottle of alcohol in hand; she wasn’t even sure whether it was the same one from dinner.

“Haven’t you drunk enough for one night?” Gloria teases him, a half smile on her face. 

Daryl walks into the room, “there might not be many nights left for us anyway, so why the hell not?” he says as he takes a swig from the bottle. 

Gloria nods at that, then looks down to the ground, her thoughts still trying to eat at her. There’s a moment of silence between the two before Daryl clears his throat, purposely loud, snapping her again from her thoughts.

“Wha’s up wit’ ya?” Daryl asks, now leaning against the wall, facing her, “ya din’t eat much, pickin’ at yer food like some kind o’ teenager.” 

She scoffs at his words, “nothing, we got shelter now, wouldn’t exactly call this place home, but it’s four walls and a roof. We’re safe for the night, there shouldn’t be anything wrong.” 

“Bu’ there is.” Daryl finishes for her. 

Gloria looks up at him as he stares back at her, she lets out a deep and heavy sigh, “it’s Merle.” she admits.

Daryl furrows his eyebrows in confusion, not expecting that answer, “wha’ ‘bout him?”

“I feel bad… for what happened to him.” Gloria says, her voice small. 

“Ya crazy, girl… ya know you’re the only one who shouldn’ feel bad for wha’ happened? You’re the one who stayed behind wit’ him.” Daryl tried to reason with her, he doesn’t understand why she would feel bad about the situation. 

“I should have done more,” Gloria sighs, trying to keep her composure but failing as tears start to fall, “I should have known he would have done something stupid like cutting off his own hand. I gave him the damn saw! That’s on me!” 

Daryl watches helplessly as Gloria sobs, wallowing in her own guilt. He’s never been good at comforting people, never knowing what to say or do.

“Merle… he’s…” Daryl tries to think of something, “he’s insane, ya can never predict what he’s gonna do, ya can’t blame yourself for that.”

“I told him to cut the chains…” she says in a whisper, sniffling. 

Daryl shuffles on his feet uncomfortably before making up his mind and sits beside Gloria on the bed, he hesitates to put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her to lean on him, “stop blamin’ yerself.” 

Gloria shakes her head, “I can’t..”

Daryl pulls away from Gloria at her words and turns her to face him, he looks into her eyes, “I don’ blame ya.” he says, sincerity pure in his voice, “I’m Merle’s blood, his family, and I don’ blame ya. So tell me, what right do ya have to blame yerself?” 

She tries to compose herself again, taking deep breaths and nods at Daryl’s words, she sniffles a bit more as she wipes her tears away, “sorry you had to see my like this.” she looks away in embarrassment. 

Daryl grunts and looks away from her, wanting her to feel comfortable as she wipes away the last remaining tears from her face. He looks down at the bottle he had placed on the floor then picks it up again, taking another swig from it then offering it to Gloria. 

“This should help wit’ all that guilt and shitty feelin’s.” Daryl half smiles at her. 

Gloria looks at Daryl then glances at the bottle, and after a moment of contemplation, she grabs the bottle from him and takes a few big gulps. Daryl chuckles as he watches her, she hisses at the burning sensation down her throat. 

“Hope yer tolerance is better than yer brother.” Daryl teases, taking the bottle from her and having another swig himself.

“I’m the drinker in my family, ya don’ need to worry ‘bout that.” Gloria giggles as she mocks his accent. 

Daryl rolls his eyes at her making fun of his speech. The two of them take turns drinking from the bottle, eventually getting tipsy together. Gloria starts to lean on Daryl, giggling more as the alcohol takes over her. 

“Ya wanna know something?” Gloria grins at him, her face close to Daryl’s.

He eyes her carefully, “wha’?”

“You. Are an extremely attractive man, Daryl Dixon.” Gloria says, her eyes never leaving his. 

Daryl purses his lips together, then lightly pushes Gloria off him, getting up from the bed but wobbles slightly from the head rush, “ya should sleep, you’re drunk.”

Gloria grabs hold of his hand and tries to pull him back towards her, “Daryl…” she calls, “I want you.” 

He scoffs at her, feeling his face flush as her words but tells himself it’s just the alcohol getting to him, to both of them, “Nah, ya don’.”

“Don’t tell me what I want Daryl! I may not know what I want tomorrow, but tonight… I want you!” she looks up at him, “I’ve wanted you for a while now.” she hiccups and shoots him a flirty smile. 

“Ya ain’ gonna regret it?” Daryl looks at her, biting his bottom lip.

“What’s there to regret? It’s the end of the world, like you said, there might not be many nights left. What could one night hurt for us?” Gloria uses his own words against him.

He stares at her, his eyes wandering from her eyes to her lips, down to her body. Gloria patiently waits for him to make his next move, her eyes beckoning him to come closer. Daryl looks away then lets out a breath.

“Fuck it.” he breathes, then moves towards Gloria on the bed.

He leans down and catches her lips with his, kissing her roughly, earning a soft moan from her as she wraps her arms around his neck, pulling him closer to her as she lies down. Daryl’s hands move down to her waist, caressing her skin underneath her tight black tank top. His tongue licks her bottom lip, asking for entrance which Gloria gladly grants. Their kiss deepens, Gloria is pleasantly surprised at how soft and gentle his kisses could be. 

Reluctantly, Daryl pulls away, both of them breathless and panting for air, “ya sure ya wan’ this?”

Gloria smiles up at him, leaning up to peck his lips before answer breathlessly, “yes.” 

He smiles down back at her then claims her lips with his again, this time at a more gentle pace. Daryl bites and nips at her lips, then moving down to her neck, leaving marks on her porcelain perfect skin. 

The night goes on with endless kisses, skin on skin, full of passion and lust for one another. When the two would wake up in the morning in each other’s arms, they’d blame the alcohol for their choices, but they were both okay with that. Gloria rolls around on the bed and smiles lazily at Daryl who’s already smiling softly at her, playing with her hair, his arm on her waist.

“Morning.” she whispers.

“Mornin’.” Daryl says back, then he sits up, ruffling his hair with his hand. 

Gloria stretches as she’s still lying down, she looks over at Daryl who was getting off the bed, putting on his pants but his bare back was facing her, giving her a full view of the scars that littered his skin. Something in her heart broke when she saw those scars, but she knew better than to ask about something so personal even if they did just have sex the night before. Daryl picks up his shirt along with Gloria’s clothes and throws them at her. 

“Thanks.” she says from underneath her clothes.

Daryl chuckles at her and puts on his shirt as Gloria starts to get dressed as well. 

“Hey, Daryl?” she looks up at him once she’s fully dressed, “I was hoping… you could keep last night just between you and me.”

Her request causes Daryl to frown, “why?” he says in a rather harsh tone, sounding angry.

“I…” Gloria stutters, taken aback by his sudden harsh tone, “nobody needs to know.”

“You’re just embarrassed that ya spent the night with me, ain’t ya? An’ now that ya sobered up, ya regret it, that it?!” Daryl snaps angrily as he paces around the room. 

Gloria frowns, “No, Daryl, it’s nothing like that.”

“Bullshit! Tha’s exactly what it is!” he exclaims, getting more worked up as he talks, “ya, the high and mighty doctor of our group, not wantin’ to get caught up wit’ some good for nothin’ redneck!” 

Gloria gets up from the bed and puts her hands on Daryl’s shoulder to try and hold him in place to look at her, “Daryl, stop! Will you just shut up and listen to me?” 

Still breathing heavily from anger, Daryl glares at her, but waits for her to speak.

“All you had was Merle, right? No sisters?” Gloria asks when she sees that he’s actually willing to listen.

“Wha’s that got to do with anythin’? ” Daryl retorts back.

“It has everything to do with it. You grew up with your brother and you guys might have shared stories about who you slept with because you have that brotherly bond, but it’s not like that when you have a sibling who’s another gender. It gets awkward.” Gloria explains, “I don’t want to know about Glenn’s sex life and I know he doesn’t want to know about mine, so to spare each other the awkwardness, that’s why I asked you to keep it only between us.” 

Daryl’s breathing calmed down as he registers her words, “sorry…” he says after a moment.

Gloria lets out a small sigh of relief that Daryl finally believes her, she smiles at him, “it’s okay, and by the way,” she leans close to him and whispers into his ear, “you were amazing last night.” 

Blushing hard at what she just told him, Daryl scoffs, trying to play off his embarrassment and wraps his arm around Gloria’s shoulders, “ya still drunk, let’s get some food in ya.” 

Gloria laughs as Daryl ushers her out of the room and towards the dining table. Glenn was already sitting there but his head was laying on the table, groaning from the pounding headache of his hangover. 

“See what you did to him?” Gloria says, playfully eyeing Daryl and he laughs, going off to the kitchen to get some food, she sits beside Glenn and wraps her arm around his shoulders, “you okay, bro?”

Glenn groans in response which causes Gloria to chuckle in amusement. She gets up and heads to the kitchen to get him some breakfast. T-Dog had cooked eggs for everyone so Gloria helped herself to a plate, bringing it to Glenn and also put a bottle of water in front of him. 

“Here, eat. It’ll help you feel better.” Gloria nudges him gently, making him sit up. 

He looks at her groggily and groans as he starts to eat the eggs, “Ugh, I’m never drinking ever again.” 

Gloria pats his back gently in hopes to somehow comfort his throbbing head. When the others have all woken up and had their breakfast, they follow Dr. Jenner into the lab where he shows them the demonstration of their last test subject, TS-19, who he reveals to the group was his late wife. She was the reason he was staying in the building and is the last person left, he had made a promise to her to keep going as far as he could. Unfortunately, he breaks the news to the group that there is no cure for the outbreak. He also tells the group that they don’t have much time left as the place will face total decontamination once the power runs out. 

“Total decontamination? What does that even mean?” Carol asks, her voice filled with worry.

“The place is gonna blow… disintegrating everything… nothing left… total and complete decontamination.” Gloria sighs, remembering that this was talked about in one of her classes in university. 

Gloria’s explanation causes the others to start panicking, even more so when Dr. Jenner refuses to open the doors, saying he isn’t able to, locking everyone inside. Shane and Rick start to yell at Dr. Jenner to open the doors and let them out as Daryl starts to try and break open the doors with an axe. Thinking as practical as she can, Gloria decides to go back into the food and water storage of the building, grabbing as many bottles and dry food items as she can and stuffs them into her bag, she returns to the room where Daryl is still trying to break open the door, now joined by Shane. 

“Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher.” Dr. Jenner says in their futile attempt to break open the doors.

“Yeah,” Daryl says as he goes over to the doctor, axe still in hand, “well yer head ain’t!”

He attempts to swing the axe towards Dr. Jenner only to have Rick, Shane and T-Dog stop him, T-Dog grabbing the axe from him. Gloria goes over to Daryl and puts her hand on his arm to try and calm him. He looks at her and huffs, shrugging her hand off his arm and runs back to the door to continue to try and break it open. 

“Dr. Jenner, please, open the door. It’s not fair for you to keep us locked up in here without giving us a choice!” Gloria shouts at him, pleading for the group.

“What’s the point? Wouldn’t you rather die here, painlessly, not feel a thing rather than getting ripped to shreds out there?” Dr. Jenner tries to reason.

“That may be your choice, but that’s not ours! You don’t have the right to make that choice for us, for all of us! You may prefer to go that way, but I don’t!” Gloria shouts, getting more frustrated as Dr. Jenner doesn’t budge.

She lets out a frustrated yell and goes to Shane, grabbing the axe from him and joins Daryl in trying to destroy the door. Both of them continue to try and hack at the door until gunfire is heard as Shane erupts, firing shots into the computers and more of the equipment in the lab. Finally complying, Dr. Jenner presses a button to open the doors; whether it was the group’s pleas or Shane’s gunfire that made him do it, they’ll never know but at least now they have a chance to escape.

“C’mon, let’s go!” Daryl yells as the doors open. 

Gloria and Daryl quickly usher the group out of the building, fearing that they won’t make it out in time. The group is stopped by the bulletproof windows surrounding the outside of the building. Glenn, Daryl, Gloria, and T-Dog start throwing anything they can get their hands on to break the windows. 

“Look out!” Rick shouts as he approaches the window and lets go of a hand grenade, “everybody down!”

The group looks for anything to take cover as the grenade explodes, shattering the glass and giving them their path to freedom. They all run quickly, jumping out of the building and dashing to their respective cars. Daryl pushes Gloria towards his truck, ushering her to get in and closes the door behind her as he gets in from the other side. They both duck down, waiting for the unmistakable explosion of the C.D.C. Gloria peeks her head out of the window to see the wreckage of the blast, fire, smoke and debris painting the scene. Daryl sits up and starts the truck, seeing the others doing the same. He drives off, following the others to a safer place, a place away from the destroyed C.D.C to regroup and figure out what to do from there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end of Season 1! Season 2 will be up in another part of my Fated Series!


End file.
